§ Sir A. Wilsonasked the Minister of Health whether he will state the number of marriages reported from the thirty-first to the forty-fourth week, inclusive, of the current year, as compared with the corresponding weeks in 1937 and 1938, in the 162 principal towns which render weekly returns to the Registrar-General?
§ Mr. ElliotMarriages are not included in the weekly returns received by the Registrar-General from registrars of births and deaths in the principal towns. Statistics of marriages are derived from the statutory quarterly returns of certified copies of marriage entries. Those for the quarter to the end of September last were due to be furnished by clergymen, ministers and registrars of marriages to superintendent registrars during October, and transmitted by the latter to the Registrar-General at the beginning of the present month. I regret, therefore, that no statistics of war marriages are as yet available. It would not be possible to provide comparative figures for the periods specified in the question, but I should be glad to indicate to my hon. Friend periods for which comparable figures could be supplied.
250W