Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have died from inhaling nitrous oxide.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Kennedy,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people have died from inhaling nitrous oxide (HL7033).
In March 2018 we published a report providing the number of deaths related to volatile substance abuse and helium in England, Wales and Scotland[1]. This report describes trends in deaths involving volatile substances registered between 2001 and 2016 in Great Britain. Please see table 1 below for data where types of volatile substance are mentioned on the death certificate from the March 2018 publication. We would recommend referring to the report, where possible, due to the complexity of the methodology surrounding the use of coroner’s text to identify relevant deaths.
Following the March 2018 publication, we published ad-hoc requests from members of the public, which include: the number of deaths in England and Wales involving nitrogen and nitrous oxide 2001-2016[2]; and deaths where nitrous oxide was mentioned on the death certificate 1993-2017[3]. Please note, published figures differ across these datasets due to the methodology used and the differing definitions of nitrous oxide deaths.
We intend to publish an update of the volatile substance report and accompanying datasets later this year. This is dependent on resource due to the current pandemic.
Yours sincerely
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Number of deaths related to volatile substance abuse, where types of volatile substance mentioned on the death certificate, England and Wales, deaths registered in 2001 to 2016[4][5][6][7][8]
Registration Year | Nitrogen related deaths |
2001 | 1 |
2002 | 1 |
2003 | 0 |
2004 | 1 |
2005 | 1 |
2006 | 1 |
2007 | 5 |
2008 | 2 |
2009 | 3 |
2010 | 5 |
2011 | 4 |
2012 | 2 |
2013 | 5 |
2014 | 9 |
2015 | 16 |
2016 | 23 |
[4]Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth revision (ICD-10) codes.
[5]Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents.
[6]Figures are for deaths registered rather than occurring in each calendar year.
[7]Specific substances included in each category, details are available in the published dataset.
[8]Counts total to more than the total number of VSA deaths, because more than one substance group can be involved in a single death.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the possible reasons for the excess deaths in the UK since 1 March in which the cause of death was not recorded as COVID-19.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Kennedy,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has made of the possible reasons for the excess deaths in the UK since 1 March in which the cause of death was not recorded as COVID-19 (HL6132).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has investigated deaths not recorded as due to COVID-19 for England and Wales extensively, and published their findings on the website. The analysis presents excess deaths by age, sex, region of England, place of death and cause of death. Possible explanations for trends are put forward, and the extent to which weekly deaths registrations data support or contradict each suggestion is assessed. The main points of this analysis are outlined below:
Between 7 March and 1 May, a total of 130,009 deaths were registered across England and Wales. This is an excess of 46,380 death registrations compared to the five-year average. 12,900 of these deaths (27.8%) did not involve COVID-19.
The ONS’ article is based on 98.1% of the total deaths registered and 43,903 excess deaths, because a small proportion of deaths take longer to be fully coded and validated for analysis.
Non-COVID-19 excess deaths occur predominantly in older age groups, to a greater extent with increasing age, and especially for the frail elderly with underlying conditions. Undiagnosed COVID-19 could help explain the rise in these deaths.
In the period from week ending 13 March to week ending 1 May, over 8,000 fewer deaths were registered in hospitals, which is a 20.9% decrease in comparison to the corresponding period in the five-year average. In contrast, almost 11,000 more deaths (an increase of 60.5%) were registered in care homes, and over 8,000 more deaths (an increase of 42.6%) were registered in private homes,
In the same period, the largest increases in non-COVID-19 deaths compared to the five-year average are seen in deaths due to ‘dementia and Alzheimer disease’ (5,404 excess deaths, an increase of 52.2%) and ‘symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions’, which indicates old age and frailty (1,567 excess deaths, an increase of 77.8%). Together, these comprise two thirds of total non-COVID-19 excess deaths in this period.
Deaths due to causes such as asthma and diabetes increased up to the week ending 24 April and occurred increasingly outside hospital. This could suggest that a delay in care for these conditions is leading to an increase in deaths, although it could also be related to undiagnosed COVID-19.
Changes to death registration processes implemented in the Coronavirus Act 2020 have led to an increased number of death registrations made by doctors, increasing registration efficiency overall. At present, it is not clear whether increased efficiency is a cause or result of an increase in weekly registrations, but some further effects may become apparent in the future for conditions where deaths have a longer registration delay.
The other theories investigated were reduced hospital capacity, and increases in deaths caused by stress-related conditions, but these cannot explain much of the increase in non-COVID-19 death registrations.
A full analysis of non-COVID-19 excess deaths will only be possible in several months' time when longer-term effects and additional data, both death registrations and other sources, can be considered. This analysis only investigates death registrations in England and Wales, as the ONS does not hold data on death registrations in the rest of the UK. Given the novel and exploratory nature of this analysis, this report published in early June presented findings about death registrations up to 1 May. This was a stand-alone release, rather than a regular series. We are currently designing a follow-up, however we have no provisional date for release as yet.
The latest information on excess deaths in general are available in our weekly deaths registration data, with latest available for week ending 19 July.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of deaths due to medical conditions other than COVID-19 since 5 March.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Kennedy,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the number of deaths due to medical conditions other than COVID-19 since 5 March (HL3543).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. The most recent 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 24 April 2020[2]. We have also published an article which contains detailed analysis of all deaths that occurred in England and Wales between 1 and 31 March 2020, registered up to 6 April 2020[3]. This includes data on underlying causes of death. Detailed analysis of all deaths that occurred in England and Wales between 1 and 30 April 2020 is due to be published in mid-May.
National Records Scotland (NRS) and 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 caused by COVID-19 are identified by the ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2.
Table 1 below provides the number of deaths by whether the underlying cause was COVID-19 or another medical condition, for deaths that occurred in England and Wales between 1 and 31 March 2020 registered up to 6 April 2020.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Number of deaths occurring in March 2020, where the underlying cause of death was COVID-19 or other causes, England and Wales[4][5][6]
Underlying cause of death | Number of deaths |
COVID-19 | 3,372 |
All other causes | 43,986 |
Total | 47,358 |
Source: Office for National Statistics | |
[4] Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. Codes used for COVID-19 are U07.1 and U07.2.
[5] Figures are for deaths that occurred between 1 and 31 March 2020 in England and Wales and were registered by 6 April 2020.
[6] More detail on the number of deaths broken down by leading cause groups (other than COVID-19) can be found in Table 1 of the dataset published alongside the article on Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: March 2020.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are recording deaths due to COVID-19 by age; if so, when they will release this information to assist in research modelling; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Kennedy,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether deaths due to COVID-19 by age are being recorded and if so, when this information will be released to assist in research modelling; and if not why (HL3407).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes mortality data that are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. This includes information on the cause of death, such as COVID-19, and the age of the deceased.
The ONS are responsible for producing a weekly report on the provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19)[1]. As part of this report, data is published for death registrations and death occurrences where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate by five-year age bands. This weekly report gets published every Tuesday at 9.30am with the data available to be used for research purposes.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are planning to take to prevent fake advertisements and fake news funded from unknown sources seeking to undermine parliamentary elections.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Government takes the integrity of our electoral processes extremely seriously and we are working across Government to strengthen our electoral system and defend it from interference. In July 2019, the Cabinet Office announced the creation of the Defending Democracy programme, which has been set up to pull together existing work and expertise in this area from right across Government.
The Defending Democracy programme has been set up by the Government in order to protect and secure UK democratic processes, systems and institutions from interference including from cyber, personnel and physical threats; to strengthen the integrity of UK elections; to encourage respect for open, fair and safe democratic participation; and to promote fact-based and open discourse, including online.
On 5th May 2019 the Cabinet Office also announced a range of measures to better safeguard UK elections by cracking down on intimidation, malign influence, interference and disinformation. This included commitments to launch a consultation on electoral integrity and implement a digital imprints regime for online election material.
The Government has built relationships with social media companies and will continue to have regular and robust dialogue with them on how to limit the spread of disinformation and other kinds of propaganda designed to serve political interests. Social media platforms have taken action to protect the integrity and security of the elections. They are providing online safety and security guidance to parties and candidates and are improving transparency of political advertising on their platforms and processes for removal of fake accounts. While we welcome these measures, there is clearly much more to be done to tackle these issues and other online harms.