You asked
I need to find out where patients have died ie hospital, nursing home or own home. So I just want to know if ONS holds such information? If so, how do I get access to the information? Or how I go about applying for access? If I can’t get access, can I email someone in ONS a list patients who died and tell me where they died?
We said
We are able to confirm that the requested information is held by the Office for National Statistics. Under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) there are two main ways that ONS can release personal information for research purposes.
The first is under section 42(4) of the SRSA as amended by s287 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 ONS can provide personal information to the Secretary of State for Health for statistical purposes only. For personal information to be released under this gateway the Secretary of State for Health (including an organisation listed in s287) must fund the work that is being carried out. A link to the relevant legislation is provided here:
When the above route does not apply then applications for ONS mortality individual record level data should be made via the approved researcher (AR) route (s39 of the SRSA). Each researcher on the project who has access to the data must apply to become an AR. A customer request form will also need to be completed. Again personal information approved via this route can only be provided for statistical purposes only. Approved Researcher forms and Customer Request Forms - Registration & Health can be found on the ONS website.
Please contact Vital Statistics Outputs Branch for further information: VSOB@ons.gov.uk
If customers wish to know place of death, when patients have died and the cause of death and they hold the NHS Number, then this information may be obtained from the Health and Social Care Information Centre - Data Access Request Service. All emails should be directed to: enquiries@hscic.gov.uk To obtain the data from the Health and Social Care Informaion Centre, one of the aforementioned methods for release of the data would need to be followed.