Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many sudden infant deaths occurred in the UK in each of the last three years.
The sudden unexpected death of a baby, when there is no apparent cause of death, is known as sudden unexpected death in infancy. This includes sudden infant death syndrome and fatal sleep accidents.
Statistics on sudden infant deaths for England and Wales are reported by the Office for National Statistics with separate publications by the National Records of Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The following table shows the most recent data available in each year since 2018.
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
2021 | Not yet available | 15 | Not yet available |
2020 | 78 (provisional) | 13 | 2 |
2019 | 103 | 23 | 3 |
2018 | 114 | 28 | 0 |
Note:
Data for England and Wales in 2020 data is provisional due to registration delays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finalised data will be published in 2023.