Daily and weekly COVID-19 deaths disaggregated by LSOA, occupation, age, and sex

You asked

Please provide the number of daily COVID-19 related deaths disaggregated by certain characteristics as csv files:

1. For each LSOA

2. By occupation

3. The above two data requests by age bands and sex.

Please provide occupation death data disaggregated by some form of geographical unit (e.g. MSOA, LA) if possible.

Also, please provide a weekly time series dataset on the number of deaths in England by (a) place of death and (b) cause of death from the first week of 2020 to date? Cause of death to be defined by the root ICD-10 classification (e.g ICD J00-J99, ICD I00-I99 etc).

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with daily COVID-19 related deaths by LSOA and occupation. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use statistical skill and high levels of judgement in order to create a bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.

However, we are able to provide the following information relating to your request:

Please see the following dataset regarding deaths by occupation: Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered up to and including 20 April 2020. This will provide provisional analysis of deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by different occupational groups, among males and females aged 20 to 64 years in England and Wales. This data set will be updated on 26 June 2020.

Unfortunately, we do not currently have sufficient data to provide a model for individual regions. We recognise the need for this data, and we are exploring the feasibility of including geographic breakdowns in future releases in line with our Disclosure Control Policy.

We can also offer the following weekly death data publications:

Please see the following link: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending 12 June 2020. This publication will provide weekly deaths for England and Wales (including regional breakdown).

Please also the following dataset: Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board. This will provide provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by local authority, health board and place of death in the latest weeks for which data are available.

Please also see the following dataset, which will provide COVID-19 related deaths with underlying causes: Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: deaths occurring in May 2020. This will provide number of deaths registered each month in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by age, sex and region.

We have also published the below bulletin, which provides provisional counts of the number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates involving the coronavirus (COVID-19) between 1 March and 31 May 2020 in England and Wales. MSOA level data is available in this publication: Deaths involving COVID-19 by local area and socioeconomic deprivation: deaths occurring between 1 March and 31 May 2020.

We have not yet published a full ICD10 breakdown on our provisional data. This will be available in the future as part of our annual Deaths registered series. 2019 data will be published in July 2020, with 2020 data due in mid-2021. Consequently, the information you have requested is regarded as exempt according to Section 22 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. Whilst we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.