Publication - FOI/EIR release

Excess deaths in Scotland updated response: FOI release

Published: 14 February 2025
Directorate: Population Health Directorate
Topic: Health and social care, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202400446166
Date received: 21 December 2024
Date responded: 23 January 2025

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

You asked for an updated response to this previous FOI request: Excess deaths in Scotland: FOI review - gov.scot and asked if we are now in a position to determine the associations of excess deaths in Scotland.

Response

As our previous response outlined, the Scottish Government closely monitors excess deaths statistics and work closely with our analytical partners Public Health Scotland (PHS) and National Records of Scotland (NRS) to understand the latest trends and causes.

I enclose a copy of information held by the Scottish Government relating to your request, provided within two zip files. Please see attached the following documents:

HSCA - OS - Excess deaths - Scotland 2020-23 - limited update January 2023.pdf - A set of slides and accompanying notes containing analysis conducted by Scottish Government looking at trends in excess deaths and discussing potential causes and drivers
HSCA - excess deaths VBH&C briefing note- 200223 (extract).pdf - An extract from a briefing note on Value Based Health and Care, which provides analysis of recent trends in excess deaths, and other details relating to secondary prevention activity and ongoing work.
Mortality SIG minutes - extracts.pdf - Summaries of discussions on drivers of excess deaths, from February 2023, March 2023 and September 2024
24_09_03_PHS_SIG_Mortality_trends_Eng_Scot_revised 0210224.pdf - A set of slides and accompanying notes from a presentation given on 3 September 2024 to the Mortality Special Interest Group discussing trends in excess mortality in Scotland and England.
Cardiovascular disease summary paper – 01 03.pdf – A paper analysing trends in Cardiovascular disease, including possible explanations for these
2023-03-29 CWP Approach to Burden of Disease - CVD v1.0 (extract).pdf – An extract from a set of slides discussing trends in excess mortality and relevant ongoing work.

Where noted, information within these documents has been redacted under Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, to avoid release of personal information relating to a third party.

Further information provided out with FOISA which you may find helpful

You may already be aware of the Mortality Special Interest Group (SIG). This group, chaired by PHS, is a collaborative group for mortality monitoring and analysis in Scotland, and includes representation from the Scottish Government. The purpose is to facilitate the coordination of work of key organisations, to identify, analyse and explain changes and variation in population mortality in Scotland. Following discussion at the Mortality SIG, a scoping review was conducted to help to shape research into current mortality trends, examining potential explanations for higher-than-expected levels of mortalit experienced since April 2021.

NRS are responsible for Scotland’s vital event statistics and hold data on Scotland’s excess deaths. They are responsible for publishing these official statistics, which you may find helpful:

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.