Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK Government policies between 2010 and 2024 on excess deaths.

Excess deaths are defined as the difference between the actual number of deaths registered in a particular period and the number expected based on recent trends. Headline figures for England are reported weekly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The following table shows the trends in excess deaths in England and Wales, from 2011 to 2024:

Source: ONS statistics for 2011 to 2023, and ONS statistics summed up from weekly figures for 2024, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

The drivers of excess deaths are not fully understood, and the excess is likely to be the net effect of many complex and potentially related factors. The attribution of excess deaths to these factors is complex and is beyond the scope of the ONS’ methodology. For this reason, the potential impact of Government policies on excess deaths cannot be assessed accurately.