You asked
Please could you provide weekly or daily UK mortality rates for the following categories:
UK suicide, murder, cancer, cardiovascular mortality figures for February, March and April 2020
I presume they are counted as well as COVID-19 deaths, yet do not seem to be publicly available.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for producing mortality statistics for England and Wales. For Scotland and Northern Ireland data, please see National Records Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
We do not publish underlying causes on provisional deaths data, except for respiratory deaths and COVID-19. Underlying causes of respiratory and COVID-19 deaths can be found in our Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending 15 May 2020. All underlying causes are published as part of our Deaths Registered Series. 2019 data will be available in July 2020 and 2020 registrations will be published in July 2021.
However, as part of our COVID-19 analysis, some underlying cause data is available if presented alongside COVID-19. This can be found in our Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: April 2020. Analysis for May Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales will be released 19 June 2020.
With regards to suicide data, this is published as part of our annual Suicides in the UK release. The number of deaths is presented for 2018, which is the latest available year of complete death registrations. This data is not yet available for 2019 or 2020.
Unfortunately, we are also unable to provide statistics for 2020 regarding murder, as we are not due to publish any figures for the year ending March 2020 until July 2020. However, the Home Office also hold data on murder statistics and may be able to answer your query. They can be contacted via email at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk.
Consequently, the information you have requested is regarded as exempt according to Section 22 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. Whilst we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.