Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many excess deaths over the state pension age there have been in England and Wales for each year in which data are available in the last decade.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Earl Howe GBE

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

13 January 2025

Dear Earl Howe,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking how many excess deaths over the state pension age there have been in England and Wales for each year in which data are available in the last decade (HL3738); and how many age-standardised excess deaths there have been in England and Wales for each year in which data are available in the last decade (HL3739).

In February 2024, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published new estimates of excess deaths in the UK using a new method[1]. Estimates of excess deaths in the UK for those aged 65 and over for the last decade can be found in Table 1. State pension age varies by sex and changes over time, so we have presented figures for the 65 and over age group which most closely aligns with those at state pension age or above. Please also note that estimates from our model are only possible at a UK level when they are broken down by age.

Our new methodology for estimating excess deaths uses a statistical model to estimate the expected number of deaths. The model accounts for changes in population size, age structure, and trends in mortality over time. The estimates shown in Table 1 therefore account for changes in age structure. Further breakdowns providing excess deaths by age group are available in our Estimating excess deaths in the UK, methodology changes dataset[2].

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Annual estimates of expected and excess deaths, aged 65 and over, UK: 2011 to 2023.

Source: Office for National Statistics

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/estimatingexcessdeathsintheukmethodologychanges/february2024

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/estimatingexcessdeathsintheukmethodologychanges/february2024/relateddata