Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November 2023 (HL36), whether they will publish data on an annualised basis on what proportion of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate have been (1) male, and (2) female, for the period in which data are available.

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 Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November 2023 (HL36), whether data on an annualised basis on what proportion of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate have been (1) male, and (2) female, for the period in which data are available, will be published (HL3740).

The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration, which is a legal requirement. This data enables the ONS to produce detailed statistics on deaths that are registered in England and Wales. In October 2024, the ONS published annual statistics for deaths registered in 2023[1]. Deaths where COVID-19 was the underlying cause by year are published in our Deaths registered in England and Wales dataset[2]. Table 1 also provides the data you have requested.

Table 1: Deaths registered where COVID-19 was the underlying cause, England and Wales, all ages excluding under 1, 2020 to 2023.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregistrationsummarytables/2023

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsregisteredinenglandandwalesseriesdrreferencetables