Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of incidences of sepsis in the last five years.

The Department and NHS England do not hold information centrally on the incidences of sepsis, and have made no assessment of the trends. There is a lack of reliable estimates of the incidence and prevalence of sepsis due to a lack of consistency in the definitions used to describe sepsis, and differences in coding between professionals and organisations. Despite this, the focus on sepsis in recent years means there is now much better awareness and improved clinical recognition of sepsis symptoms.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does publish data on the number of death registrations where sepsis is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate in England and Wales between 2001 and 2022, as the data for 2023 has yet to be published. The following table shows the number of deaths registered where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate in England and Wales in each of the last five years:

The Department works with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to monitor sepsis death data. It is difficult to attribute the increase in the number of deaths registered where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate from 2020 to 2022 to a single cause, as the incidences of infection and reasons for acute deterioration are complex and multifactorial. It is also possible that the increase reflects a greater awareness of sepsis and improved coding and recording of deaths due to sepsis.