Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of those who have died in care homes whose death certificate mentioned COVID-19 were (1) discharged from hospital to a care home, and (2) admitted to a care home from their residential address.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Dear Baroness Cox,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many of those who have died in care homes whose death certificate mentioned COVID-19 were (1) discharged from hospital to a care home, and (2) admitted to a care home from their residential address (HL3011).

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.

Table 1 below shows the number of deaths that occurred in care homes in England and Wales where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate in 2020 (occurring up to week 16; the week ending 17 April 2020 and registered by 25 April). The data is broken down by place of usual residence, which is either home or care home, and the residency period. The length of residency is therefore used here as an indication of whether the individual had recently moved (within the last 6 months) into the care home, prior to their death. Please note this data is provisional.

Data identifying whether the individual had recently transferred from hospital to the care home, prior to their death, is currently unavailable.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Provisional figures on death occurrences in care homes where coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales and place of usual residence was home or care home[1][2][3][4]

Source: ONS

[1]Deaths of non-residents are included in the England and Wales total.

[2]Figures based on date a death occurred rather than registered. There is sometimes a delay in registering deaths, more information can be found in our registration delay release.

[3]Care homes include homes from the chronic sick; nursing homes; homes for people with mental health problems and non-NHS multi-function sites.

[4]These figures are calculated using the most up-to-date data we have available to get the most accurate estimates. Therefore it is based on deaths registered up to 25 April