Dataset showing individuals by COVID-19 vaccination status, death date, and year of birth

FOI reference: FOI-2025-3357

You asked

We request that the following anonymized, record-level data on COVID-19 vaccinations in the United Kingdom be provided to us for research.

For each person alive in the UK on 1 April 2021, the enrolment date for this research, please supply an electronically-processable table (or a link thereto) containing at least the following information: 

1. An identity code unique to that person (the person will thus remain anonymous); 

2. The year of birth of that person; 

3. The number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine received by that person at 1 April 2021 (if the person had not been vaccinated by that date, enter "0");  

4. The date of the Sunday beginning the week in which that person subsequently died.

We said

Thank you for your request.  

Your request asks us to disclose row-level information. We have confirmed with our statistical disclosure experts that, given the variables requested, individuals are likely to be identified in some cases. This could be achieved by linking this data with publicly available information. It is imperative for our organisation to protect such personal information, as we have a statutory obligation under s.39 of the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 (SRSA) to ensure that identifiable information is not publicly disclosed. Disclosure of such information is not only exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 but also constitutes a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. 

Therefore, to action your request, our Statistical Disclosure Control team would need to interrogate 2.5 million rows of data to determine whether it is personal information. This would then allow us to make appropriate suppressions to ensure we do not make an unlawful disclosure. The resource required to action this would greatly exceed the 24-hour cost limit for FOI requests. Consequently, Section 12 of Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.  

We do note in your request that you have said you would like to access the data to conduct research, which we fully support. We have a process by which accredited researchers can access information at the level requested, which would be appropriate for your purposes. Details of this process can be found via the following link to our website: Become an accredited researcher. If you have any questions about the application process, you can contact Accredited.Researcher.Support@ons.gov.uk.