§ Mrs. Winifred Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will publish statistics of the incidence of induced labour births in England for the last five years to the latest available date.
§ Dr. OwenInformation is not available for England separately. Revised estimates of the number of births in NHS hospitals that were induced and the percentage these formed of total births in NHS hospitals in England and Wales are given below:
Year Estimated number of induced births in NHS hospitals Percentage of total NHS hospital births 1969 … … … 164,000 25.1 1970 … … … 181,000 27.2 1971 … … … 203,000 29.6 1972 … … … 205,000 31.5 1973 … … … 232,000* 37.2* * Provisional estimate.