You asked
On the 14th July 2020 the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock made a statement in the House.
He told the House face coverings were to be mandatory. This was predominantly for the safety of customers and shop assistants alike, to protect the public from risk of COVID19 infection.
He stated in evidence of this that the "death rate of sales and retail assistants is 75% higher among men and 60% higher among women", also their was evidence face coverings would increase confidence.
Would it be possible to be provided with the data Mr Hancock has used for his statement? Including evidence he refers to concerning public confidence?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for mortality statistics for England and Wales. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide the exact statistics Mr Hancock used in this presentation, as we don't hold this information.
However, please see the following publication: Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered between 9 March and 25 May 2020. This shows that, among women, four specific occupations had an increase death rate involving COVID-19, including sales and retail assistants (15.7 deaths per 100,000 women, or 64 deaths).
Because of the higher number of deaths among men, 17 specific occupations were found to have raised rates of death involving COVID-19, some of which included: taxi drivers and chauffeurs (65.3 deaths per 100,000; 134 deaths); bus and coach drivers (44.2 deaths per 100,000; 53 deaths); chefs (56.8 deaths per 100,000; 49 deaths); and sales and retail assistants (34.2 deaths per 100,000; 43 deaths)
For further information please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk
Unfortunately, we do not hold any statistics relating to an increase of public confidence in shopping as a result of face mask regulations.