Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons the coronavirus status checker survey does not collect sex-disaggregated data; and what comparative assessment he has made of the effect of covid-19 on (a) men and (b) women and (i) girls and (ii) boys.

The National Health Service Coronavirus Status checker collects only the minimum amount of data necessary to predict the likely demand on NHS services. NHSX plan to iterate the survey and may add gender to this collection, if it would help predict demand more effectively.

Public Health England (PHE) has established surveillance systems to collect and analyse data on COVID-19 infection, including age and sex. Addressing inequalities is a key concern for PHE as is understanding the wider public health implications of an emergency such as the one we are experiencing.

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths by age and sex can be viewed on the National COVID-19 Weekly Summary Report at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports