Allergic reactions (FOI)

Request

A

How many people are believed to have allergies in Jersey?

B

How many people epi pens have been issued over the past 10 years? Please break this down by year.

C

How many people have visited hospital because of an allergic reaction in Jersey over the past 10 years? Please break this down by year.  

D

How many of those have been anaphylactic reactions?  Please break this down by year.

E

How many people have died due to an allergic reaction in Jersey?  Please break this down by year.

F

How many people have had life changing injuries due to an allergic reaction in Jersey?  Please break this down by year.

How many people have had allergic reactions as a result of consuming food or drink in a hospitality venue over the past ten years?  Please break this down by year.

H

How many complaints have there been about allergic reactions from food or drink consumed in a hospitality venue in Jersey over the past ten years? Please break this down by year.

I

What are the current legal requirements for hospitality venues to note items such as nuts or shellfish or gluten on menus? 

J

What is the current advice and or compensation available for islanders who have an allergic reaction from food or drink consumed at a hospitality venue?

K

How many food safety investigations have been carried out by Environmental Health as a result of allergic reactions in hospitality venues?

Response

A

As noted in a Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in April 2022, data on allergies is held across numerous information systems, and no central record is available.

Allergic Reactions (FOI)

A Scheduled Public Authority is not required to create new datasets nor manipulate existing datasets in order to respond to Freedom of Information requests. Furthermore, the time necessary to identify and extract the data requested from the records that are available would exceed the timescales prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B

The table below shows data held by Customer and Local Services for adrenaline auto-injector devices (EpiPen and other comparable brands) dispensed from 2014 to end July 2023.

Figures shared previously for devices issued from 2014 to 2021 included a small number (around 30 to 40 injections per year) of other adrenaline-containing injection products that could not be distinguished at the time from the pre-filled devices used for the treatment of anaphylaxis (brands Jext, EpiPen, Emerade). The data below excludes these. Data is not held prior to 2014.

C and D

Data for attendances at Jersey General Hospital (JGH) with a diagnosis of ‘allergy’ from 2012 to 2021 (inclusive) has been supplied in the previous Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in April 2022 referenced and linked above. As this information is available elsewhere Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Please see the table below for attendances at JGH with a diagnosis of ‘allergy’ for 2022, and for the period January 2023 to August 2023 (inclusive), as the latest full month of reporting available at this time:

Sources: Emergency Department Activity Report ED5A (TrakCare), Emergency Department Activity Report ED001DM (Maxims)

As detailed in the previous Freedom of Information response on this subject, it should be noted that no distinction is available in the patient administration system for the time period between Emergency Department attendances for allergy and those for anaphylaxis.

E

The cause(s) of death is shown on a Medical Death Certificate using codes provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in their International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10):

ICD-10 Version:2016 (who.int)

A review of Public Health intelligence records was undertaken, using the ICD-10 codes detailed below:

• Codes in category J30
• J45.0
• J46.X
• K52.2
• Codes in category L23
• L25.4
• L27.2
• L50.0
• L50.6
• T50.9
• T78.0
• T78.4
• Codes in categories T51 - T65
• T78.1
• T78.2
• T78.4
• T80.5
• T80.6
• T88.6
• T88.7

As noted in a Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in April 2022, no deaths have been recorded against the codes attributed to allergy from 2007 to 2020 (inclusive). In light of outstanding inquests for 2019 and 2020 at the time of this published response, records have been reviewed, and there has been no change to this information.

Currently none of the deaths recorded between 2007 and 2022 indicate that the underlying cause was due to an allergy or allergic reaction.

However, the following should be noted:

• at the time of publication, a number of inquests are still outstanding for deaths occurring in most recent years, therefore the cause of death details for these years has not been finalised.
• there are challenges with the coding of allergies as there are numerous codes associated with these conditions and it would be very difficult to provide details of every potential symptom code that may have arisen due to an allergic reaction.

F

As detailed in the Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in April 2022 referenced and linked above, data on whether a patient diagnosis or specified issue is considered to be life changing is not available within central records maintained by Health and Community Services (HCS). As this information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

G

There is no legal requirement for members of the public or businesses to report an allergic reaction to food consumed to the Government of Jersey, and as such, this information is not held. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

H

Environmental and Consumer Protection have received 18 complaints since 2014. 

Due to small numbers across the years for which data has been requested, a breakdown of annual figures cannot be provided, as this could identify individual cases. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect the privacy of individuals and no further information relating to these individuals will be released.

I

Work has commenced to create subordinate legislation following the introduction of the Food (Jersey) Law 2023. Allergens and other labelling requirements are a priority within this work. 

It is illegal for businesses to falsely claim a product does not contain a specified food product. This includes the fourteen allergens identified in EU legislation.

Allergen guidance for food businesses (food.gov.uk)

J

If someone has experienced an allergic reaction following consumption of food from a business venue, and they are no longer in need of medical assistance, they are advised to call Environmental and Consumer Protection on (01534) 445808 or email:

environmentalhealth@gov.je

The Government of Jersey is not involved in compensation in these situations. This would be a private matter between the customer and business.

K

As noted in the Freedom of Information response published to www.gov.je in April 2022 referenced and linked above, every complaint received is investigated.

As per the response to question H, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect the privacy of individuals and no further information will be released.

Articles Applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations. 

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.