FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4048
You asked
Please find below my freedom of information request:
I would like the raw data that would allow me to calculate the rate of all-cause mortality split by Covid vaccination status and age since the beginning of the pandemic.
This data for needed is:
- the number of deaths in the vaccinated group and mean time since vaccination, and the size of the group
- the number of deaths in the unvaccinated group and the size of the group
I would like this split by into age groups of 10 years, for example 0-10 years, 10-20 years etc.
I understand the small number of deaths in the younger groups may falsely indicate a certain result (due to variance), but rest assured I will not jump to conclusions, and feel free to include a disclaimer stating as such in your response.
I know you have this data because you released it in one of your previous Covid updates.
I am not interested in the number of deaths by specific cause of death, because both Covid and the vaccine may have increased the likelihood of death by some causes we have not made a connection with yet, perhaps cancer for example.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with raw mortality and vaccination status data as it is considered personal information. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it an offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individuals can be identified, we find that Section 44(1) 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.
However, you may find the following information useful:
We hold the following analysis "Deaths involving COVID-19 by Vaccination Status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 31 January 2022". We use 21 days after vaccination as this is when the vaccine is deemed to be effective. February and March 2022 data will be published in our next publication on 16 May 2022.
Table 5 of this publication shows monthly age-standardised mortality rates by age-group and vaccination status for deaths involving COVID-19 from January to January 2022.
Table 8 provides an overview of COVID-19 and all cause deaths by vaccination status.
This includes the following vaccine status:
unvaccinated
vaccinated with 1 dose only, less than 21 days after vaccination
vaccinated with 1 dose only, at least 21 days after vaccination
vaccinated with 2 doses, less than 21 days after second vaccination
vaccinated with 2 doses, at least 21 days after second vaccination
vaccinated with 3 doses, less than 21 days after third or booster vaccination
vaccinated with 3 doses, at least 21 days after third or booster vaccination
The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the Public Health Data Asset covers England only. Therefore, we consider data for Wales as information not held.
We can create a custom output for data for England for January 2021 to January 2022 for data aggregated by specific age bands. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).
Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.