Resources: A guide to water incident data in the UK

GUIDANCE

Court judgments

Prior to 2022, the charitable website BALII was the main open-access database providing access to court and tribunal judgments in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Post-2022, the National Archives now hosts important case law from the higher courts. Premium services such as Lexis Nexus, Westlaw, and legal practitioner texts offer access to a larger body of case law. The Ministry of Justice offers a premium judgment transcription service for lower courts. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Drowning with and without morbidity [published ad hoc]. 
• Water-related suicides [published ad hoc]. 
• Alcohol-related water incidents [published ad hoc]. 
• Other water-related injuries [published ad hoc]. 

Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

HM Coroner has the discretion to publish Prevention of Future Death reports under its statutory powers in cases where water-related fatalities have been caused in whole or in part by the actions of third parties: 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc].
• Water-related suicides [published ad hoc].

DAN Diver incident insights

DAN operate a voluntary diving incident reporting functionality and associated case summaries via their website. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Drowning with and without morbidity [published ad hoc]. 

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

FCDO publishes water-related incident information from primary sources relevant to UK citizens involved in incidents overseas: 

• Drowning fatalities [published annually]. 

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

The HSE publishes in-year work and water-related fatalities for England, Wales and Scotland via the National Archive. The HSE also publishes convictions and notices relating to local authorities for commercial water activity operators, including swimming pools, open water, fairground and watersports activities. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Commercial water activity operator prosecutions and enforcement notices [published ad hoc]. 

Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI)

The HSENI publish in-year work and water-related fatalities for Northern Ireland. The HSENI also publishes convictions and notices relating to commercial water activity operators, including swimming pools, open water, fairground and watersports activities. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Commercial water activity operator prosecutions and enforcement notices [published ad hoc]. 

Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB)

The MAIB investigates marine accidents involving UK vessels worldwide and all vessels in UK territorial waters. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Drowning with and without morbidity [published ad hoc]. 

National Child Mortality Database

High-level national and regional statistics on child fatalities in and around water. 

• Drowning fatalities [published annually]. 

National, regional and local newspapers

Most national, regional and local newspapers have at some time published articles concerning water-related incidents. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Drowning with and without morbidity [published ad hoc]. 
• Water-related suicides [published ad hoc]. 
• Alcohol-related water incidents [published ad hoc]. 
• Other water-related injuries [published ad hoc]. 

National Register of Scotland (NRS)

The NRS publishes water-related incident information from primary sources relevant to Scotland: 

• Drowning fatalities [published annually].
• Accidental deaths [published annually]. 
• Suicides [published annually]. 
• Alcohol-related deaths [published annually]. 

National Water Safety Forum (NWSF)

NWSF publishes consolidated water-related incident information collated from secondary and tertiary sources via the UK Water Incident Database: 

• Drowning fatalities [published annually].
• Water-related suicides [published annually]. 
• Water-related violence [published annually]. 

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)

The NISRA publishes water incident-related incident information from primary sources relevant to Northern Ireland:

• Drowning fatalities [published annually]. 
• Accidental deaths [published annually]. 
• Suicides [published annually]. 
• Alcohol-related deaths [published annually].  

Office for National Statistics (ONS)

The ONS publishes water incident-related information from primary sources relevant to England and Wales: 

• Drowning fatalities [published annually].
• Drowning fatalities registered in private homes [published annually].
• Accidental deaths [published annually].  
• Suicides [published annually]
• Water incident-related suicides [published annually].
• Alcohol-related deaths [published annually]. 

Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service

Sheriffs are required to publish Fatal Accident Inquiry reports in accordance with their statutory duty, including in cases involving a water-related incident caused in whole or in part by the actions of a third party: 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Water-related suicides [published ad hoc]. 

Water-incident focussed sector organizations

Some water-related incidents are reported by sector organizations, including RLSS UK, STA, RoSPA, and Swim England. 

• Drowning fatalities [published ad hoc]. 
• Drowning with and without morbidity [published ad hoc]. 
• Water-related suicides [published ad hoc]. 
• Alcohol-related water incidents [published ad hoc]. 
• Other water-related injuries [published ad hoc]. 

References

^{BALII. (2022). Case law search. Available at: https://www.bailii.org/form/search_cases.html accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{Courts and Tribunals Service. (2022). Prevention of future deaths reports. Available at: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/?filter_type=publication&search=&tax-single-subject=-1&tax-single-publication-type=-1&tax-single-publication-jurisdiction=25&tax-single-publication-court=-1&date-range-after=&date-range-before= accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{DAN. (2022). Diver safety. Incident insights. Available at: https://dan.org/safety-prevention/diver-safety/case-summaries/ accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{FCDO. (2022). Consular management information. (6th April). Available at: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/92b75474-4adb-489e-a6a4-dbf0bd169cc6/foreign-commonwealth-and-development-office-consular-management-information accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{HSE. (2022). In-year workplace deaths where the HSE was the enforcing authority. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/fatalities/in-year-names.htm accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{HSE. (2022). Public register of convictions and notices. Available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20210204120443/https://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/convictions.htm accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{HSENI. (2022). Annual reports and statement of accounts. Available at: https://www.hseni.gov.uk/publications/hseni-annual-reports accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{MAIB. (2022). Marine Accident Investigation Branch Reports. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{National Archives. (2022). Case law search. Available at: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ accessed 8th May 2022.}  

_{NHS Digital. (2020). Mortality data review. Review of the timeliness and completeness of the data sources used to record deaths of citizens. (June). Available at: https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/coronavirus-data-services-updates/mortality-data-review accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{NISRA. (2020). Registrar General Annual Report on Cause of Death in Northern Ireland. (21st October). Available at: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/topic/cause-death-30/topic/registrar-general-annual-report-64 accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{NISRA. (2022). Alcohol specific deaths in Northern Ireland. (27th January). Available at: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/alcohol-specific-deaths-northern-ireland-2020 accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{NRS. (2021). Vital events reference tables for Scotland. (17th August). https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/vital-events-reference-tables accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{ONS. (2021). Deaths registered in private homes, England and Wales dataset. (10th November). Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsregisteredinprivatehomesenglandandwales accessed 8th May 2022.} 

^{ONS. (2022). Deaths from suicide that occurred in England and Wales dataset. (14th April). Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsfromsuicidethatoccurredinenglandandwales accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{ONS. (2022). Excess deaths dataset in England and Wales. (22 March). Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/excessdeathsinenglandandwales accessed 8th May 2022.}  

^{Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. (2022). Fatal accident inquiries. Available at: https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/fatal-accident-inquiries accessed 8th May 2022.}  

Citation: Jacklin, D. 2022. A guide to drowning data in the UK. Water Incident Research Hub, 8th May.