Angela Smith (Minister of State (Third Sector), Cabinet Office; Basildon, Labour)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths attributed to (a) horse riding and (b) ecstasy were recorded in the last 10 years. (297922)

Table 1 below provides (a) the number of deaths where the underlying cause was an accident to a rider of an animal or an occupant of an animal-drawn vehicle, in England and Wales, for the years 1999 to 2008 (the latest year available).

Information on the cause of death recorded at death registration by a medical practitioner or coroner is coded using the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (Ninth Revision for the years 1999 to 2000, and Tenth Revision from 2001 onwards). Although there are ICD codes to identify deaths where the underlying cause was an accident to a rider of an animal or an occupant of an animal-drawn vehicle, these codes are not specific to the type of animal involved in the accident. It is therefore not possible to say definitively that all deaths presented in Table 1 were related to horse riding.

Table 2 below provides (b) the number of deaths where the underlying cause was drug poisoning, and ecstasy was mentioned on the death certificate, either alone or together with other substances, in England and Wales, for the years 1999 to 2008.

ONS figures on drug-related deaths identify all substances that were mentioned on the death record. Where more than one substance was mentioned, it is not possible to state which of them was primarily responsible for the death.