Difference between NHS and ONS figures

You asked

According to the NHS Covid-19 death report w/e 03 December 2020, the number of people who died from Covid-19 with a pre existing condition was 39801 and the number with no pre-existing condition was 1804. This is a gap of 37997.

This gap is not reflected in the ONS figures, in fact the gap between your figures is 9135 but bizarrely in the opposite direction.

I am aware of the documents available online explaining the difference between ONS and NHS figures, however none of these documents explain the gap in these two groups. I feel it is valid to ask for an explanation as to how this gap of 37997 people seems to disappear when displayed by the ONS/Gov.uk/MSM.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Unfortunately, without a link to the figures to which you are referencing in your request, we are unable to comment on the quoted disparities. However, please see the following information we have available regarding the difference between NHS and ONS figures and our COVID-19 data.

Our mortality data is taken from the death certificate. There is an 11-day lag in our data compared to NHS and Public Health England data, due to time taken for certification, registration (up to 5 days), coding, and processing.

Please see the following publication, Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales, which provides information from March to June 2020. Please note, this publication has been now been paused. This publication states that between March and June 2020, there have been 4,476 deaths involving COVID-19 where there are no pre-existing conditions.

Within our Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional we provide a breakdown of COVID-19 deaths.  We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.