§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many deaths have been recorded in Scotland for each of the past 10 years in the period December to March; [38051]
(2) what estimate he has made of (a) the number and (b) the percentage rate of excess winter mortalities in each of the last 10 years. [38053]
Mr. Michael Forysth[holding answer 23 July 1996]: There is no universally accepted definition of excess winter deaths and it would not be possible to calculate a rate for these. The total number of deaths in the period December to March for each of the past 10 years are as follows:
Winter December-March 1985–86 24,762 1986–87 22,577 1987–88 22,317 1988–89 22,079 1989–90 25,497 1990–91 21,859 1991–92 22,217 1992–93 22,416 1993–94 22,504 1994–95 21,510