The UK had one of the biggest rises in death rates in Europe during the Covid pandemic, new analysis has found.

BBC analysis has revealed the UK had the fourth highest rise in deaths (5%) compared with the five previous years among leading economies, behind the US, Poland and Italy for the three years to February 2023.

Researchers found the overall rise was driven by a 15% increase in the first year of the pandemic.

Death rates in the UK fell in the second year of the pandemic thanks to the successful roll-out of the vaccination programme.

Around 25,000 patients were discharged into care homes in the UK without testing between 17 March and 15 April 2020. A Hight Court ruling in April 2022 found the care home discharge policy unlawful.

There were 43,256 deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes in England between March 2020 and January 2022.

The latest government figures show there were 227,618 deaths with Covid on the death certificate in the UK as of 15 June 2023.

The BBC analysis comes follows the launch of public hearings in the Covid Inquiry last month.