Motor Neurone Disease (Hansard, 17 June 1986)

§ Mr. Spencer
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has about the number of people who have died of the motor neurone disease in each of the last five years.

§ Mr. Whitney
The numbers of deaths with an underlying cause of death stated as motor neurone disease registered in England and Wales in each of the last five years are shown in the table.
524W

Number of deaths from motor neurone disease, persons, all ages England and Wales: 1981 to 1985

Cause of death ICD code 1981 1982 1983 ^*1984 ^*1985

Motor neurone disease 335.2 883 824 942 1,005 1,103

^* Because of a change in coding rules, figures for 1984 and 1985 are not strictly comparable with those of earlier years. Figures for 1985 are provisional.

§ Mr. Spencer
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has about the number of people currently suffering from the motor neurone disease.

§ Mr. Whitney
There are no centrally collected statistics about the total number of people currently suffering from motor neurone disease. In 1984, the latest year for which information is available centrally, there were an estimated 2,170 discharges (including deaths in hospital) of inpatients from National Health Service non-psychiatric hospitals in England with a main diagnosis of motor neurone disease.
It has been estimated that in the United Kingdom some 5,000 people suffer from this disease and that about 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Number of deaths from motor neurone disease, persons, all ages England and Wales: 1981 to 1985
Cause of death	ICD code	1981	1982	1983	^*1984	^*1985
Motor neurone disease	335.2	883	824	942	1,005	1,103
^* Because of a change in coding rules, figures for 1984 and 1985 are not strictly comparable with those of earlier years. Figures for 1985 are provisional.