§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he intends to take to ensure the registration records relating to perinatal deaths contain clinical information indicating the sequence of events preceding death.
§ Mr. John PattenDiscussions are now in progress with the relevant professions on modifying the medical certificates used for registering stillbirths and neo-natal deaths (that is, deaths in the first four weeks of life). By including in the certificates a more detailed description of adverse events and conditions arising in both the mother and the baby, it will be possible to record at registration the type of information with which the question is concerned. We hope that regulations will be made in time for the new certificate to apply to deaths registered in 1986.