Documents in deciding how to class a death as an official Coivd death
Dear Office for National Statistics,
The Office for National Statistics classes deaths of COVID-19 and with COVID-
19 as two different things in the monthly mortality analysis.
The official number of COVID-19 deaths is recorded as COVID-19/coronavirus
being mentioned anywhere on the death certificate but not necessarily caused
by coronavirus. For this reason, the mortality analysis for England does not
have as many COVID-19 deaths mentioned as the official number, released by
the PM at the start of the lock-down in his daily briefing.
Could you supply any documents, emails or notes that were used to form the
decision to class an official COVID-19 death as mentioned on the death
certificate and not COVID-19 being the cause of death.
PHE has suggested you would be better suited to provide the above, please see the response to my previous FOI : https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/6...
Yours faithfully,
Karl Carpenter
Workflow Notification
For the latest data on the economy and society, consult our
website at [3]http://www.ons.gov.uk
Legal Disclaimer: Any views expressed by the sender of this message are
not necessarily those of the Office for National Statistics
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References
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1. mailto:[ONS request email]
2. http://ons.gov.uk/coronavirus
3. http://www.ons.gov.uk/
OFFICIAL
Dear Karl Carpenter,
Please find attached our acknowledgement email concerning your FOI request sent to you on Thursday 03 September 2020.
Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[email address]
Follow us on Twitter @PHE uk
Dear Karl Carpenter,
Thank you for your email. Public Health England can confirm it has already provided a response to your request, which was sent on the 25 September 2020, within the statutory deadline. We have attached a copy of its response to this email, for your convenience.
If you have any queries regarding the information that has been supplied to you, please refer your query to in writing in the first instance. If you remain dissatisfied and would like to request an internal review, then please contact us at the address above or by emailing [email address].
Please note that you have the right to an independent review by the Information Commissioner’s Office if a complaint cannot be resolved through the PHE complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Public Accountability Unit
Public Health England
[Public Health England request email]
Follow us on Twitter @PHE uk
Our Reference: FOI/2020/0845
Dear Karl
Thank you for your email requesting data pertaining to documents, emails,
and notes ONS used to form the decision to class an official COVID-19
death.
I am writing to confirm that the Office for National Statistics has now
completed its search for the information which you requested and the
response can be found here:
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transpare...
You have the right to have this response to your Freedom of Information
request reviewed internally by an internal review process and, if you
remain unhappy with the decision, by the Information Commissioner. If you
would like to have the decision reviewed please write to The FoI Team,
Room 1100, Office for National Statistics, Segensworth Road, Titchfield
PO15 5RR, and mark your correspondence "Internal Review".
If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Freedom of
Information Team ('[ONS request email]').
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
The Freedom of Information Team
Office for National Statistics
For information on Coronavirus, please visit [2]ONS.gov.uk/coronavirus
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transpare...
2. http://ons.gov.uk/coronavirus
Dear FOI Team,
Thanks for your response, you claim "no decision has been made" however you have an outcome I don't see how this could be possible, surely if no decision has been made no action would have been taken so a decision must have been made somewhere?
Yours sincerely,
Karl Carpenter
Our reference: FOI/2020/0845
Dear Karl,
Thank you for your query.
We have stated in our response that no decision has been made in response to the statement in your request that a decision has been made "to class a COVID-19 death as mentioned on the death certificate and not COVID-19 being the cause of death".
Our response was on the basis that no specific decision was made by the Office for National Statistics to treat COVID-19 deaths in any particular way. Our process is that we follow guidance produced by the World Health Organisation and report statistics in line with that guidance.
We hope this assists to clarify our response.
Kind regards,
The Freedom of Information Team | UK Statistics Authority | Awdurdod Ystadegau’r Deyrnas Unedig
@UKStatsAuth | [email address] | http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk
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