§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on the collection of statistics on mobility and mortality rates of various conditions and diseases. [63661]
§ Ms BlearsThe Department makes use of the following information on mortality and morbidity, in particular to support the NHS Plan, "Our Healthier Nation" and work on health inequalities.
Mortality statistics are the responsibility of the registrar general who is also director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The cause of every death is certified either by a doctor who attended the deceased in his last illness, or a coroner. ONS codes the diseases, injuries and external causes from the certificate and selects the underlying cause using the current revision of the international classification of diseases, published by the World Health Organisation. Since January 2001, the Tenth Revision (ICD-10) has been used. Prior to that, the Ninth Revision was in use from 1979. Mortality statistics are published by ONS in electronic and paper form and are used by the Department, other Government Departments, the national health service and academic researchers.
The Department collects and uses a wide range of data on morbidity according to the condition of interest and the context of the question to be answered
Data sources in the Department and the ONS include population surveys (such as the health survey for England, general household survey) and health services data (such as hospital episode statistics and the Royal College of General Practitioners Weekly Returns Service). Data sources include administrative sources and ad-hoc surveys according to the particular issues. Some sources have general health information and others focus on specific conditions (eg cancer registration, psychiatric morbidity survey). Further details of these and other sources are available on the Department's and ONS websites, www.doh.gov.uk/public/stats1/htm, www.nationalstatistics.org.uk/.