§ 90. Mr. Dempseyasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that the infant mortality rate has risen in Lanarkshire from 30 per 1,000 live births to 35 per 1,000; and what steps he proposes to take with a view to reversing this trend.
§ Mr. MaclayI am advised that no conclusion about trends should be drawn from the figures for one year. The rate in 1950 was 40 per thousand live births; in 1958 it was 30, and, while it rose to 35 in 1959, I am glad to be able to tell the hon. Member that in the first nine months of 1960 it was down to 28.7.