asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many fatalities occurred in 2006 and 2007 which were attributable to hypothermia, cold homes or inadequate living conditions. [HL3164]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician and Registrar-General, to Lord Ouseley, dated April 2008.

The most recent figures available are for deaths registered in 2006. In 2006, there were 179 deaths where hypothermia¹ was mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales.

Figures on fatalities due to “cold homes” or “inadequate living conditions” are not available from death registration data held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, ONS does produce annual figures of excess winter mortality (EWM)². The latest available data for excess winter mortality for England and Wales are provisional figures for 2006-07. In the winter period of 2006-07 (December to March) there were an estimated 23,900 more deaths in England and Wales compared to the average level in the non-winter period.

1 Selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code T68.

2 Excess winter deaths are defined by the Office for National Statistics as the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July). Figures for 2006-07 are provisional and are therefore rounded to the nearest 100.