Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, following reports of the differential impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities, all relevant public authorities in the UK should be gathering data on the ethnic profile of those dying with the condition; and if not, what plans they have to instruct such authorities to do so.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The potential for impact on ethnicity, gender, age, and other vulnerable groups is a cause for significant concern to us. This is why we have asked Public Health England to review COVID-19 outcomes among different groups, including ethnic minority communities, and to explore reasons for the disparities.
The findings of this review will inform what further action we can take to better protect these communities. In the meantime, we have implemented specific measures to reduce the spread of the virus in all communities.
The statistical information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Baroness Lawrence,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether, following reports of the differential impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities, all relevant public authorities in the UK should be gathering data on the ethnic profile of those dying with the condition; and if not, what plans they have to instruct such authorities to do so (HL4512).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing weekly numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. The most recent annual figures published are for deaths registered in 2018[1]. However, we do publish provisional weekly deaths registrations, which are currently published for deaths registered up to 8 May 2020[2]. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for publishing the number of deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Cause of death is defined using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th edition (ICD-10). Deaths involving COVID-19, which refers to deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, are identified by the ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2.
The ONS have recently published an article[3] and accompanying datasets[4] on provisional analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 by ethnicity for England and Wales. These analyses are based on a new dataset developed by the ONS that links 2011 Census records to deaths that occurred between 2 March and 10 April 2020 registered by death registrations up to 17 April 2020, with deaths being added on a weekly basis. These analyses will be updated and extended in June 2020.
Collecting information on the ethnic profile of individuals dying with COVID-19 presents practical and methodological challenges. This is because ethnicity is a self-identification measure reflecting how individuals define themselves, and guidance on the collection of ethnic group data in the UK states that responses on ethnicity should be answered by the individual directly, particularly if they are an adult[5].
Ethnicity is not recorded on the death certificate. To enable us to undertake our specific analysis at the ONS, deaths involving COVID-19 were linked to the 2011 Census, which allowed us to ascertain the self-reported ethnicity of the deceased and other demographic factors.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond