To ask the Minister of Finance, following the Public Health England report that identified the COVID-19 death rate for adults with learning disabilities was 3.1 times the rates for adults without, whether his Department will review and produce the death rate in Northern Ireland for people with learning disabilities compared with adults without; and whether priority access to a future vaccine will be provided to this group.

England’s COVID-19 Patient Notification System (CPNS) was set up in March 2020 to capture COVID-19 related deaths in hospitals in England. In a recent publication, Public Health England (PHE), using data sourced from CPNS, reported that the death rate for adults with learning disabilities with COVID-19 up to 5 June 2020 was 3.1 times the rate for adults without learning disabilities. COVID-19: deaths of people with learning disabilities - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). There is no equivalent CPNS data collection system here.

Learning Disability is not captured as part of the death registration process upon which the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) produces death statistics.

NISRA, through the Administrative Data Research-Northern Ireland, is currently developing a research project, to link death registration information to Census 2011. This research, which will commence in early 2021, will provide a greater understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on specific, vulnerable groups. The granularity of this analysis will be limited by anticipated small numbers in certain groups. The work is at the development stage but, depending on the quality of the linkage, is anticipated to report findings by mid-2021.

Responsibility for access to a future vaccine is the responsibility of the Department of Health.