Cancer incidence and mortality statistics (FOI)

Request

Please may I have the most up to date cancer incidence and mortality raw numbers by gender by year for Jersey.

Response 

Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to information that is publicly available. 

Information on cancer mortality rates is publicly available on the Government of Jersey website: www.gov.je in response to a previous Freedom of Information Request, and can be found by using the link below: 

Cancer Mortality Rates (FOI)

Information in relation to cancer diagnosis in Jersey is analysed by Public Health England through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service on behalf of the Channel Islands. The latest report from Public Health England can be accessed via the following link: 

Channel Islands Cancer Registration Report 2020 (gov.je)

Data about diagnosis in 2017 onwards will be included in the next iteration of this report. Providing data from the Jersey health systems, would include data extraction, matching and analysis from the following systems:

• Cancer Outcomes and Services dataset (COSD) from the cancer management MDT system
• Pathology (including information about staging and metastasis)
• Patient Administration System (PAS)
• Death certificates or notices
• Population projections 

Compilation of this data, without information from UK data systems related to Jersey domiciled residents would not give a complete picture of diagnosis of Jersey residents, this is why data is supplied through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service in order to provide a complete data set of cancer diagnoses. 

Cancer registrations can take up to five years after the end of a given calendar year to reach 100% completeness, due to the continuing accrual of late registrations. Further changes may still occur after five years following later diagnostic testing. To answer the request, the data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated. Aside from taking more than the prescribed 12.5 hours to complete, the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

All of the conditions mentioned on death certificates are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. 

In 2021 there were 271 deaths in Jersey reported on death certificates, and assigned with ICD-10 codes as conditions with the following underlying causes of death:

• C00-C97. Malignant Neoplasms

Deaths include Jersey residents who have died in Jersey and also include the deaths of Jersey residents who have died off-island and been repatriated. 

The table in the attached document shows Jersey cancer mortality figures and age-standardised rates (2021), split by gender, with lower and upper confidence intervals (LL and UL respectively) shown. 

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. 

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.

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.