§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a table showing the infant mortality rate in(a) each Scottish constituency, (b) each health board area, and (c) each postal district, in the last available year.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythProvisional figures show that there were 510 infant deaths in Scotland in 1990, giving an infant mortality rate of 7.7 deaths per 1,000 live births. This continues the long-term downward trend. At this level, care must be taken in comparing rates for different areas.
Rates for the 15 health board areas are given below: those based on fewer than 10 deaths are marked with an asterisk.
Rates for the 72 parliamentary constituencies and the 438 postal districts are not given because comparison at this area level could be misleading.
Infant Death Rates, Scotland 1990 (Provisional) Health Board Areas Number Borders 10.7 Forth Valley 8.1 Dumfries and Galloway *5.0 Fife 7.2 Grampian 6.8 Highland 8.5 Lothian 7.9 Tayside 9.1 Orkney *7.4 Shetland *0.0 Western Isles *8.7 Argyll and Clyde 10.1 Ayrshire and Arran 6.4 Greater Glasgow 7.3 Lanarkshire 7.4