FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3254
You asked
My request is relating to the information provided by you in Table 4 (entitled "Weekly age-specific mortality rates by vaccination status for all deaths, per 100,000 people, England, deaths occurring between 2 January 2021 and 24 September 2021") in the Excel sheet found here. The information there is split by age groups in 10 year intervals for the over 60s, but is unfortunately not for the under 60s and you only provide one aggregate number for the age group from 10-59 year olds.
Please supply the same data as in Table 4 in the Excel sheet found here, but with the age groups 10 to 59 split in at most 10 year intervals. I.e., for each week please supply the same data, but also split for 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 year olds.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our publication "Deaths by Vaccination Status" gives weekly age-standardised mortality rates by vaccination status for the age groups 10-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80+. Data was not provided for further age breakdowns in line with our disclosure policy.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to disclose the requested data for weekly mortality rates by 10-year age group from 10 to 59 year olds. This information would include very low figures representing the number of people with a particular combinations of these variables. This would therefore constitute personal information. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it a criminal offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual. This includes those who are deceased. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individual businesses or persons can be identified, we find that Section 44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies. Section 44 is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.
Our next update of "Deaths by vaccination status", due for release on the 20 December 2021, contains further age breakdowns within the 10-59 age group where possible for monthly mortality rates (rather than weekly), which may help answer your query.