Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer on 9 June 2020 to Question 43753 on Death, what assessment his Department has made of the implications of the high number of excess deaths during the covid-19 outbreak on his policy response to that outbreak.

The Office for National Statistics published a report on 5 June 2020 providing an analysis of death registrations not involving COVID-19. Their report found that the largest increases in non-COVID-19 deaths compared to the five-year average are seen in deaths due to "dementia and Alzheimer disease" and "symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions" (the latter mostly indicating old age and frailty). Overall, they reported 5,404 excess deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer disease and 1,567 excess deaths due to "symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions" in the period from week ending 13 March to week ending 1 May. This comprises two thirds of total non-COVID-19 excess deaths in this period. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/analysisofdeathregistrationsnotinvolvingcoronaviruscovid19englandandwales28december2019to1may2020/technicalannex