HC Deb 05 June 1990 vol 173 c575W
31. Mr. Terry Fields

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking following the publication of the National Audit Office report on maternity services.

44. Ms. Gordon

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking following the publication of the National Audit Office report on maternity services.

48. Mrs. Fyfe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking following the publication of the National Audit Office report on maternity services.

80. Mr. Flannery

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking following the publication of the National Audit Office report on maternity services.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The National Audit Office reported that, despite the halving of infant mortality rates between 1985 and 1987, there remained wide-ranging geographical variations in the incidence of infant mortality. Last July, in the Government reply to the first report from the Social Services Committee (Session 1988–89) on "Perinat 1, Neonatal and Infant Mortality" (Cm 741), we announced a major new initiative to address this problem. The National Audit Office endorsed our approach and we are taking its findings into account in its implementation.

Figures just published by the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys in its weekly monitor bulletin of 16 May, a copy of which is available in the Library, show that the decline in infant mortality continued in 1989 and rates are now lower than in any previous year.