Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish comparative statistics of death rates from diseases including (1) tuberculosis, (2) heart disease, (3) influenza, (4) diabetes, and (5) similar diseases, to contextualise death rates from COVID-19 and improve public understanding.

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

Dear Lord Judd,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what plans there are to publish comparative statistics on death rates from diseases including (1) tuberculosis, (2) heart disease, (3) influenza, (4) diabetes, and (5) similar diseases, to contextualise death rates from COVID-19 and improve public understanding (HL5854).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. The most recent annual figures published are for deaths registered in 2018[1]. The finalised annual death registrations for 2019 will be presented in the forthcoming Death Registrations[2] publication, due to be published on 1 July 2020.

We also publish provisional data on weekly deaths registrations, which are currently published for deaths registered up to 5 June 2020[3]. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for publishing the number of deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

The ONS has recently published an article that presents additional data on deaths involving COVID-19, for deaths that occurred between 1 March and 30 April (and registered up to 5 May 2020), in England and Wales[4]. This publication provides a breakdown of the 10 leading causes of death during this period, which include ischaemic heart disease, influenza and pneumonia. Figures 3 and 4 in this publication compare the age-standardised mortality rate for the 10 leading causes of death against the 5-year average. Age-standardised rates are used because they provide a better measure of mortality than the number of deaths, as they account for the population size and age structure. They are also better for comparing between areas and over time.

Table 1[5] reports the number of deaths occurring between 1 March and 30 April 2020, grouped by leading causes, including COVID-19. An extract of the data containing the conditions you have requested is below. Unfortunately, due to the way we analyse the data, we are unable to separate those deaths where the cause of death was registered as influenza or pneumonia. An update of this dataset will be published on 23 June 2020[6].

Our future analysis workplan includes further investigation of deaths involving COVID-19 and those from other causes.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Number of deaths by select causes, England and Wales, deaths occurring between March and April 2020[7]^,[8]^,[9]

Source: Office for National Statistics

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

[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/deathsregisteredinenglandandwales2019

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

[4]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwales/latest

[5]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwales

[6]https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwalesmay2020

[7]England and Wales includes deaths of non-residents. England and Wales separately excludes deaths of non-residents.

[8]Based on the data a death occurred rather than when a death was registered.

[9]Based on the bounderies as of February 2020.