Statistics on Public Health: Consultation 2025

The Health and social care statistical outputs consultation, ran from 12 December 2023 to 5 March 2024, and sought feedback on a range of proposed changes to health and social care publications produced by a number of agencies, including NHS England (NHSE), the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). A link to this consultation can be found at Health and social care statistical outputs.

The consultation was driven by the principles of the Code of Practice for Statistics, including Principle V5.1 which details that opportunities for data sharing, data linkage, cross-analysis of sources and the reuse of data should be taken wherever feasible. Topic 15 (Smoking, drugs and alcohol) acknowledged that consolidation of statistics had already been considered, including the formation of the Statistics on Public Health publication (Lifestyles compendia consultation document.pdf).

This consultation proposes further consolidation of the Statistics for Public Health publication. At present, statistics on admissions for alcohol use are signposted to OHID's Local Area Profiles for England. It is intended to signpost further sections of the publication to other existing publications where the same data and analysis is presented. This would provide the benefits of ensuring that analysis is presented alongside complementary information (enabling greater bench marking), is produced by subject matter experts using the most relevant and up to date data and minimises burden on resources by reducing duplication. In addition, during the Health and social care statistical outputs consultation feedback on proposed changes to the Statistics of Public Health publication were positive and supported a move towards more signposting to existing outputs.

If the proposals below are accepted the current Statistics for Public Health publication would only include the signposting page (Part 5) that would also include signposting and guidance to the new data sources described below. It would also cease to be an Accredited Official Statistics (National Statistic).

It is proposed that outputs relating to hospital admissions for drug use, obesity and smoking are migrated to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). OHID are already responsible for producing alcohol related hospital admissions, which are published on their Fingertips site. OHID recently held a consultation to migrate obesity related hospital admissions to Fingertips so it would be beneficial to users to have all admissions statistics available on a single platform, alongside other key statistics for each public health area (alcohol, drugs, obesity and smoking).

The table below provides a top-level summary of the admissions data outputs provided in the Statistics on Public Health publication and through OHID's Fingertips profile (alcohol only).

Post migration, it is proposed that the admissions section of the Statistics on Public Health webpage would provide signposting to the relevant areas of Fingertips.

Smoking related admissions (sourced from NHS England) are also published by OHID on their Fingertips site but are currently paused while OHID review the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the methodology. OHID expect to restart publishing smoking related admissions later this year.

It is proposed that outputs relating to deaths caused by and attributable to smoking are migrated to Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). OHID already provide statistics on alcohol-related mortality and deaths from drug misuse on the Mortality Profile | Fingertips | Department of Health and Social Care. As for the Statistics on Public Health smoking mortality outputs, deaths data for the Mortality Profile is sourced from the Office for National Statistics.

The review OHID are conducting for smoking related admissions also covers smoking related mortality. By migrating responsibility for production of smoking death statistics to OHID, any such methodological change can be implemented to the statistics in the most timely manner. This conforms to principle Q2 (Sound methods) of the Code of Practice for Statistics - producers of statistics and data should use the best available methods.

Post migration, it is proposed that the Smoking-related mortality section of the Statistics on Public Health webpage would provide signposting to the relevant areas of Fingertips.

It is proposed that production of prescription analysis outputs is migrated to NHSBSA. As part of their role, NHSBSA provide platforms, delivery services and reporting for NHS prescription services, as such provide expertise on prescribing data. Their ePACT2 platform is used to extract the prescriptions data used within the Statistics for Public Health publication.

NHSBSA already produce annual (Prescription Cost Analysis - England | NHSBSA) and monthly (Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) Monthly Administrative Data) reporting which includes breakdowns for alcohol dependence, gastro-intestinal anti-obesity drugs and nicotine dependence. This proposal would therefore, with the provision of monthly reporting, provide users with more timely data, and directly remove duplication of and burden on resources.

The table below provides a top-level comparison of the publications:

As noted above, a key difference between the Statistics on Public Health and NHSBSA publications is that the former presents data by items prescribed, whilst NHSBSA reporting is presented by items dispensed. There is also a difference in the geographies that are presented in the NHSBSA publications. The given geography is that of the dispensing contractor for the prescription item, rather than the prescribing practice or organisation as shown in the Statistics on Public Health. The download available below quantifies these (relatively small) differences at Integrated Care Board (ICB) level for alcohol, obesity and smoking related prescriptions.

Post migration, it is proposed that the Lifestyle-related prescriptions section of the Statistics on Public Health webpage would provide signposting to the relevant publication areas on the NHSBSA website, along with guidance on how to find data relating to alcohol, obesity and smoking prescriptions.

It is proposed that outputs relating to Affordability and Expenditure on alcohol and tobacco are migrated to Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). The analysis presented within this section is based on economic data from the Office for National Statistics.

Post migration, the Affordability and expenditure section on the Statistics on Public Health webpage will provide signposting to the relevant area on the OHID website.

Now that you have read the proposals we'd invite you to complete the questionnaire using the link from the button below before the end of Tuesday 12th August.

If you have any questions about the consultation please contact us at: [email protected]

We appreciate your contributions to this consultation. The results will be analysed and a response to the consultation will be published in the autumn.