Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to appoint someone to report directly to the National Security Advisor (1) on military co-operation with Australia and America, and (2) to help Australia develop SSN submarines.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The National Security Adviser has appointed Whitehall leads to report to him directly on the UK’s collaboration with the US and Australia on AUKUS. The Ministry of Defence reports regularly to the National Security Adviser on the programme of work, conducted alongside US and Australian colleagues, to identify the optimum way to deliver new submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total number of COVID-19 deaths in England since 1 July; and how many of those deaths were people who were either (1) unvaccinated, or (2) had underlying health conditions.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
Lord West of Spithead
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
27 October 2021
Dear Lord West of Spithead,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in England since 1 July; and how many of those deaths were people who were either (1) unvaccinated, or (2) had underlying health conditions (HL3191).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes mortality statistics for England and Wales compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. Based on the latest data in the bulletin ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: 15 October 2021’1, there were 7,673 deaths involving COVID-19 registered between 1 July 2021 and 8 October 2021 in England.
Information provided at death registration can be used to identify the presence of pre-existing health conditions. The data are published quarterly in the ‘Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales’ dataset2. These are currently available until the end of June 2021. In the second quarter of 2021 (April to June), 18.8% of people who died due to COVID-19 in England and Wales had no pre-existing condition. The data for the third quarter (July to September) will be published on 23 November 2021.
The vaccination status of the deceased is not recorded at death registration unless the certifying doctor or coroner considered it to be relevant to the cause of death. To produce statistics on deaths by COVID-19 vaccination status the ONS has created a linked dataset which includes death registrations, vaccination data from the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) and Test and Trace data on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results. The methods are described in ‘Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021’3. Unfortunately, this publication only covered deaths that occurred up to 2 July 2021. However, an update of this publication, covering deaths that occurred up to 24 September 2021, will be published on 1 November. Of the 51,281 deaths involving Covid-19 that occurred between 2 January and 2 July 2021, 38,964 (76.0%) occurred in unvaccinated individuals. Please note, however, that this proportion is likely to change in the most recent period, as an increasing number of people are now vaccinated.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1 Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: 15 October 2021
2 Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 25 February (HL13332), what are the timescales for the cross government review being led by the Deputy National Security Advisor into future governance for the development of resilient Position, Navigation and Timing arrangements for UK users, including promotion of Global Navigation Satellite System and other Position, Navigation and Timing sources.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
A team in the Cabinet Office has developed a Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) strategy that seeks to define the high-level requirements for resilient PNT systems. This work has included engaging subject matter experts across a full range of Government departments, including those leading in maritime, aviation, energy and communications sectors. Views have also been taken from selected PNT industry members to ensure peer review and robust challenge. The review of current governance arrangements, which aims to ensure that coordination of PNT across government is put on sustainable footing, is nearing completion and is expected to be concluded shortly.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to involve experts across different organisations in the development of a resilient, high integrity Position, Navigating and Timing (PNT) System-of-Systems.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
A team in the Cabinet Office has developed a Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) strategy that seeks to define the high-level requirements for resilient PNT systems. This work has included engaging subject matter experts across a full range of Government departments, including those leading in maritime, aviation, energy and communications sectors. Views have also been taken from selected PNT industry members to ensure peer review and robust challenge. The review of current governance arrangements, which aims to ensure that coordination of PNT across government is put on sustainable footing, is nearing completion and is expected to be concluded shortly.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people aged (1) below 50, (2) 50 to 59, (3) 60 to 69, (4) 70 to 79, and (5) over 80, years, had died as a result of COVID-19 as of 31 December 2020; and how many in each age group had a serious underlying health condition.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
19 January 2021
Dear Lord West,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people aged (1) below 50, (2) 50 to 59, (3) 60 to 69, (4) 70 to 79, and (5) over 80 years, have died as a result of COVID-19 as of 31 December 2020; and how many in each age group had a serious underlying health condition (HL12082).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. As part of the ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales’ publication[1], we produce the number of deaths involving COVID-19 by age group. Table 1 below shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 registered in England and Wales between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021, the relevant period used in our regular mortality reports, for the age bands below 50, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80 years and over.
The mortality statistics produced by the ONS are based on the information recorded when a death is certified and registered. A doctor will only record a health condition on the death certificate if it was in the sequence of events leading to death, or was a contributory factor in the death; the death certificate does not list all health conditions the person suffered from. Therefore, we can say in how many deaths a particular condition was involved (i.e. mentioned on the death certificate) but not how many deaths in total were of individuals suffering from such conditions. Similarly, where several conditions are mentioned on the death certificate, we cannot necessarily say whether each one was ‘serious’ in itself. For example, a chronic condition such as diabetes might have contributed to the death in combination with COVID-19, but be unlikely to have caused death on its own.
Information on deaths involving COVID-19 and pre-existing health conditions was published in July for the period 1 March to 30 June 2020 [2]. Table 2 shows the number of deaths involving COVID-19 occurring in England and Wales between 1 March and 30 June 2020, registered up to 4 July 2020, for the age bands below 50, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80 years and over, divided into those did or did not have one or more pre-existing conditions mentioned on the death certificate. The analysis of pre-existing conditions in the deaths involving COVID-19 is planned to be updated in the next six weeks.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1. Deaths due to COVID-19 registered between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021, England and Wales[3],[4],[5],[6]
Age band | Deaths |
|
Below 50 years | 1,499 |
|
50 to 59 years | 3,470 |
|
60 to 69 years | 7,837 |
|
70 to 79 years | 18,699 |
|
80 years and over | 49,325 |
|
Source: ONS | ||
Table 2. Deaths involving COVID-19 by whether a pre-existing condition was mentioned on the death certificate, deaths occurring 1 March to 30 June 2020, England and Wales[7],[8],[9],[10]
Age band | One or more pre-existing condition | No pre-existing condition |
Below 50 years | 807 | 192 |
50 to 59 years | 1,950 | 350 |
60 to 69 years | 4,333 | 523 |
70 to 79 years | 10,394 | 926 |
80 years and over | 28,375 | 2,485 |
Source: ONS
[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwales/deathsoccurringinjune2020
[3] Includes deaths registered between 28 December 2019 and 1 January 2021. These figures represent death registrations, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.
[4] Does not include deaths where age is either missing or not yet fully coded.
[5] Does not include deaths of those resident outside England and Wales or those records where the place of residence is either missing or not yet fully coded.
[6] All figures for 2020 and 2021 are provisional.
[7] Includes deaths occurring between 1 March and 30 June 2020, registered up to 4 July 2020.
[8] Based on all deaths involving COVID-19 (ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2) not only deaths ‘due to’ COVID-19 (i.e. where COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death).
[9] Includes deaths of non-residents.
[10] All figures for 2020 and 2021 are provisional.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 12 November (HL9797), whether (1) the Cabinet Office, or (2) the Prime Minister’s Office, hold any records concerning Operation Mincemeat; and if so, whether these records are publicly available.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The Cabinet Office (which includes the Prime Minister’s Office) does not hold any records on HMS Dasher or Operation Mincemeat. In line with standard practice, historic records are transferred to The National Archives. A number of files relating to both HMS Dasher and Operation Mincemeat are held by The National Archives, including under references CAB 154/66; CAB 154/112; CAB 79/60/18; CAB 79/60/20; CAB 79/60/24; CAB 79/60/26; CAB 79/60/27; and CAB 146/442.