You asked
Please provide information on deaths caused by Opioid Analgesic indications, in particular:
Deaths caused by the Opioids solely;
Were these indicated as a contributory factor in death?
What specific Opioids were highlighted in the deaths?
Was the deceased prescribed this type of medication or was abuse the contributory factor?
How many doses of the drug was taken before death occurred?
If I could have this information from 2005 this would be of great appreciation however, if this is not possible due to the amount of work involved, then 2016-2021 would be suffice.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
ONS mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Numbers of drug related death registrations by substance (including a breakdown by type of opiate) for England and Wales, 1993 to 2019, are available in our Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2019 registrations. Please refer to the 'Deaths related to drug poisoning by selected substances' Excel file to view the data. A breakdown between drug poisoning and drug misuse is also included.
Unfortunately, we do not hold information on whether the opiate mentioned in a drug-related death was prescribed or the amount ingested by the deceased via toxicology reports, because this information is not recorded on the death certificate.
You might be interested in the Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2020 publication which provides an overview of the extent and trends of illicit drug use for the year ending March 2020. Data are from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Data for 2020 and 2021 have not yet been finalised and will be available in the future. As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under 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. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
If you wish to discuss your query further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.