Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report Contents

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6A future independent inquiry

128.The Prime Minister has said there will be an independent inquiry into the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic at the right point in the future.167 Below we set out recent data on the disproportionate and tragic death rates of disabled people with coronavirus in England and Wales, and make the case for a discrete independent inquiry into the causes.

ONS data

129.On 18 September, after we had finished taking evidence to our sub-inquiry, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the first release in its series Coronavirus (Covid-19) related deaths by disability status, England and Wales, covering the period 2 March to 14 July. It looked at death rates of disabled people compared to the rest of the population. People were defined as disabled if they had recorded in the 2011 census that their daily activities were “limited” or “limited a lot” by a health condition or long-term disability.168

130.The ONS found that almost 60% of deaths with coronavirus were of disabled people, while they made up only 16% of the study’s population. The death rate of disabled men was 240.8 per 100,000, compared to a rate of 84.2 for non-disabled men. The death rate for disabled women was 169.9 per 100,000, compared to 44.4 per 100,000 among non-disabled women. After adjusting for region, population density, socio-demographic and household characteristics it found that the death rate for disabled women was 2.4 times higher than for non-disabled women; the rate for disabled men was exactly twice as high as that for non-disabled men.169

Public Health England review of deaths of people with learning disabilities

131.On 12 November, Public Health England (PHE) published the results of a review commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care into deaths from coronavirus of people with learning disabilities in England. This used data from the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDer); hospital death records; and notifications to the Care Quality Commission of deaths in social care.170

132.The review estimated that the death rate with coronavirus of people with learning disabilities was 451 per 100,000, a rate 4.1 times higher than the general population.171 Adjusting for known gaps in the data, it estimated that the rate may be as high as 692 per 100,000, some 6.3 times higher than in the general population.172 Among people with learning disabilities, far more young people died with coronavirus than in the general population; the death rate among people with learning disabilities aged 18–34 was a shocking 30 times higher.173

133.A third of people with learning disabilities who died were living in residential care. Helen Whately MP, Minister for Care, emphasised that:

There is now regular testing of staff and residents in care homes, and testing has also been rolled out to Supported Living settings in high risk areas. We’re also offering free PPE, and the Joint committee on vaccines and immunisation has proposed those living and working in care homes should be top of the list for vaccination.

She confirmed she had asked the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to “review the findings and give advice on what more we can do to keep people safe.”174

134.In the light of starkly disproportionate and tragic data on death rates from coronavirus of disabled people, including shocking figures for deaths of people, including young people, with learning disabilities, there must be a discrete independent inquiry into the causes. It must be a wide-ranging inquiry, including consideration of the role of the Government’s and public authorities’ policies and decisions in adverse outcomes for disabled people. The independent inquiry must be established as soon as we have gained control of the pandemic, which we all hope will be in the first half of 2021.