§ Mr. McCrindleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if there have been any changes in the statistics on perinatal mortality which must be collected by district health authorities compared with that required by the former area health authorities; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenRoutine statistics on perinatal mortality are produced by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys from civil registrations of births and deaths. Although these are now produced for district health authorities instead of the former area health authorities there has been no change in the method of collection. similarly, statistics relating to perinatal mortality of low birth weight babies which are submitted 163W annually to the Department by district health authorities are unchanged from those previously submitted by area health authorities.