You asked

Please provide diabetic deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, broken down by ages ranges and state whether they were type 1 or type 2 diabetic.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Provisional numbers for death registrations by most common main pre-existing condition for deaths involving COVID-19 by age, sex and country are available via the following link: Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales publication.

ONS mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:

  1. the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or

  2. the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Diabetes is coded using ICD-10 codes Diabetes mellitus (E10-E14).

Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide a split of data between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in answer to your request. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create bespoke analysis for you. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.

However, this may be available to request as a bespoke production after death registrations for 2020 are finalised next year (Summer 2021). Please get in touch with the Health Data team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk at this time, if you would like to request such analysis.