Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is or are (1) the procedure, (2) the timetable, and (3) the rules, for adding COVID-19 related deaths (a) in care homes, and (b) in the wider community, to the total number of deaths announced each day.

Daily published statistics for COVID-19 related deaths in the United Kingdom consist of deaths with lab-confirmed COVID-19 in all settings. The UK figures are compiled from validated data provided by each of the four nations of the UK to the Department which brings the data together into a summary figure for the whole country.

Data for deaths in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are provided by Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales and the Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) respectively. Figures for England are provided by Public Health England (PHE) and draw together multiple data sources, including data from NHS England and NHS Improvement, National Health Service and PHE laboratory systems and PHE local health protection teams.

In all settings, deaths are reported only if they are linked to a lab-confirmed COVID-19 test and reported as at 5pm the previous day. The time between occurrence of death and reporting may vary and, in some cases, could be a few days.