Compendium: Mortality

Compendium Mortality Consultation 2022 - NHS Digital is currently analysing the results of the consultation that closed on 14 September 2022. In the meantime the next publication is on hold.

The Compendium mortality set covers a large number of indicators across the publications listed below.

All legacy P codes are included in the key search terms and so can be used to find the associated indicator, unless the indicator is now a signpost to more relevant information held elsewhere. Signposted indicators will be listed under their relevant series with their legacy P code included.

Please see the individual publications for information on each set.

As of July 2022, users should also be aware of the following:

• ONS Data Source

ONS mortality data relating to the 2020 calendar year is the primary underlying data source of the indicator set. The previous two releases of these indicators used 2019 and 2018 data respectively, however, prior to this it was based on 2015 ONS mortality data.

From 2016 onwards, mortality counts within the Compendium Mortality Indicator set are based on a bespoke extract taken from the Primary Care Mortality Database (PCMD) maintained by NHS Digital. PCMD is updated monthly using a file of death records from ONS and is continually subject to amendment.

It is already well established that late registrations have a small impact on counts. This bespoke extract may be taken at a different time to that of the mortality data published by ONS and as such, this may cause some small differences between ONS and NHS Digital mortality figures for a given year.

Please note that two indicators within the 'Mortality from skin cancers other than malignant melanoma' publication have been permanently excluded from the 2017 refresh onwards. This is due to a substantial number of deaths from "squamous cell carcinoma where no site was specified" having been miscoded at source to International Classification of Diseases (ICD10) code C449 "Other and unspecified malignant neoplasm of skin, unspecified" which resulted in a substantial artificial step change in the series for both 2016 and 2017 and had the potential to mislead if published.

ONS are aware of the issue and have indicated that it will be resolved for the 2018 release. For each of the affected indicators, the versions based on the 2015 refresh remain available to download in the interim.

• Granularity of crude rates

Where crude rates are included for a dataset, these are now only presented for national and regional breakdowns while the disclosure control methodology is reviewed.

The methodology that was previously applied was calculated using rounded numerator and denominator values which resulted in published values which were imprecise and potentially misleading. This was especially the case where there were small counts and any variation could result in a significant increase in crude rate where one didn't exist and so could potentially result in invalid conclusions.