To ask the Minister of Finance whether Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood is used as a cause of death by NISRA.

NISRA collates data on death registrations as collected by the General Register Office. Deaths are coded and reported according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD tenth revision).

There is no one specific code that covers ‘Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Childhood’. The ICD-10 codes NISRA routinely uses to identify Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Childhood are;

R95 (Sudden infant death syndrome); and

R96 (Other sudden death, cause unknown, (under age 18)).

R99 (Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality (under age 18))

A text search of the cause of death as written on the death certificate by the certifying medical practitioner would also be carried out for mentions of either ‘sudden unexplained death’ or ‘sudden unexpected death’.

The table overleaf details the number of childhood deaths described as sudden unexpected/unexplained death between 2020 and 2022, the latest year for which finalised figures are available.

Number of Sudden Unexplained/Unexpected Deaths in Childhood1,2,3, Registered by Year (2020-2022)

1 Deaths in childhood have been classed as those of persons aged under 18.

2 Sudden unexplained/unexpected Deaths defined as ICD-10 codes R95, R96 & R99, where age at death was under 18

3 Cause of death text fields have been searched for mentions of either ‘sudden unexplained death’ or ‘sudden unexpected death’.