​FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4090

You asked

Please supply the number of the deaths from Ministry of Defence (MOD) versus the construction industry since 1980 to present (2022).

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Data on occupation is coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010).

In all, there are 9 major groups of occupations (for example, skilled trades occupations); 25 sub-major groups (for example, skilled construction and building trades); 90 minor groups (for example, building finishing trades); and more than 350 individual occupations (for example, painters and decorators).

Full lists of occupations used in the analysis are reported in the accompanying data tables, and descriptions of these can be found in ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Hierarchy.

SOC Codes:

  • 1171 – Officers in Armed forces
  • 3311 – NCOs and other ranks
  • 5319 – Construction and building trades
  • 5321 – Plasterers
  • 5322 – Floorers and wall tilers
  • 5323 – Painters and decorators
  • 5330 – Construction and building trade supervisors.

We have not completed analysis of all-cause mortality by occupation, however we do hold analysis of COVID-19 specific mortality for 2020 only.

We also hold Deaths involving suicide publication, which is related to this topic. Please note the numbers detailed in the suicide publication cannot be used to ascertain the risk of suicide among occupations. Differences in numbers of deaths may merely reflect the underlying population structure as opposed to differences in risk. Table 4 of deaths involving suicide analysis shows a comparison of trades from 2011 to 2020.

We also hold the following user-requested data sets Occupational mortality in England and Wales, 2001 to 2010 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk), which looks at the statistical links between occupations and causes of death in England and Wales during the period 2001 to 2010. This is a study which has been investigated by Southampton University. The measure used in the analysis was the proportional mortality ratio (PMR). This measures the proportion of deaths occurring from a given cause for a particular occupation relative to the proportion of deaths from that cause in the whole population. A PMR of greater than 100 for a combination of occupation and cause of death shows that the proportion of all deaths to people formerly in that occupation arising from that cause is greater than the proportion of all deaths in all occupations combined, attributed to that cause of death.

However, if the above dataset does not meet your needs, we can create a custom data set for you. 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 can be made to the HALE Customer Services Team on Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.