HC Deb 20 May 1993 vol 225 cc274-7W
Mr. McMaster

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a table showing the infant mortality rate in each Scottish parliamentary constituency over the past five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Stewart

[holding answer 19 May 1993]: As my hon. Friend the then Minister for Health and Education told the hon. Gentleman in response to his previous question on 7 June 1991 at column 320, it is not our practice to quote infant mortality rates for small areas such as individual parliamentary constituencies, because such comparisons are likely to be misleading. Infant mortality in Scotland is at an all-time low (only 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1992) and most Scottish constituencies have fewer than 10 infant deaths a year. If these small numbers of deaths are divided by the very much larger numbers of live births to give a rate per thousand, the effect of even one untimely death is such as to make the rate swing sharply up or down, making its use for comparision between areas, or between years, of little value.

I am therefore appending a table showing the infant mortality rates for Scotland and the number of infant deaths in each constituency for each of the last five years.

Infant mortality rate for Scotland and numbers of infant deaths by Parliamentary constituency, Scotland, 1987–1992 (provisional figures for 1992)
Deaths per 1,000 live births
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Scotland 8.5 8.2 8.7 7.7 7.1 6.8
Angus East 4 11 9 8 5 4
Argyll and Bute 10 7 10 8 9 8
Ayr 4 6 11 8 7 4
Banff and Buchan 5 5 10 6 5 10
Caithness and Sutherland 6 4 6 1 1 3
Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley 9 10 9 5 10 11
Central Fife 16 6 7 8 6 3
Clackmannan 7 9 9 7 7 8
Clydebank and Milngavie 5 7 6 6 3 7
Clydesdale 8 11 6 8 5 9
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth 1 3 8 4 5 3
Cunninghame North 7 7 9 5 3 10
Cunninghame South 13 13 8 4 14 7
Dumbarton 5 17 7 12 8 8
Dumfries 10 10 16 6 10 4
Dunfermline East 12 11 9 6 10 4
Dunfermline West 13 11 6 10 2 12
East Kilbride 4 8 10 3 6 5
East Lothian 6 8 3 4 3 7
Falkirk East 10 7 12 7 5 5
Falkirk West 6 4 11 8 7 2
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale 7 5 7 4 9 9
Gordon 6 9 5 9 9 7
Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber 9 12 5 12 7 8
Kilmarnock and Loudoun 14 11 15 9 8 7
Kincardine and Deeside 9 9 3 6 6 8
Kirkcaldy 7 4 6 5 6 7
Linlithgow 6 7 11 5 8 6
Livingston 17 12 12 11 10 8
Midlothian 7 7 9 10 5 5
Moray 8 8 8 12 1 5
North East Fife 4 3 9 3 3 3
North Tayside 8 3 8 7 8 4
Orkney and Shetland 4 2 4 2 7 3
Perth and Kinross 11 6 8 11 7 8
Renfrew West and Inverclyde 6 8 7 5 4 3
Ross, Cromarty and Skye 12 7 5 9 7 7
Roxburgh and Berwickshire 5 0 2 9 1 3
Stirling 5 11 6 6 7 6
Strathkelvin and Bearsden 11 9 6 7 4 6
Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale 5 6 3 4 6 4
Western Isles 2 2 1 3 2 2
Aberdeen North 16 12 6 5 5 7
Aberdeen South 5 11 10 8 5 4
Dundee East 7 12 8 10 6 5
Dundee West 5 7 4 7 5 5
Edinburgh Central 4 4 6 3 6 10
Edinburgh East 10 7 3 11 8 10
Edinburgh, Leith 11 8 8 15 9 9
Edinburgh, Pentlands 12 8 11 8 6 7
Edinburgh South 7 6 8 8 11 6
Edinburgh West 8 4 8 2 7 3
Glasgow, Cathcart 8 4 7 3 8 5
Glasgow Central 11 6 4 5 9 11
Glasgow, Garscadden 9 9 3 8 10 6
Glasgow, Govan 2 9 10 5 4 8
Glasgow, Hillhead 5 6 7 0 4 10
Glasgow, Maryhill 10 11 12 10 3 9
Glasgow, Pollok 7 6 14 9 13 8
Glasgow, Provan 7 18 9 6 10 10

Deaths per 1,000 live births
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Glasgow, Rutherglen 13 2 10 8 4 3
Glasgow, Shettleston 7 7 6 5 3 4
Glasgow, Springburn 7 8 11 9 9 6
Greenock and Port Glasgow 4 5 5 12 5 7
Hamilton 2 8 11 11 9 1
Monklands, East 12 7 8 4 6 10
Monklands, West 2 9 5 8 14 7
Motherwell, North 16 6 8 11 15 6
Motherwell, South 7 7 6 9 7 1
Paisley, North 7 9 6 10 6 6
Paisley, South 10 8 6 9 4 7
SCOTLAND 563 543 554 510 473 449