§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr, Official Report, 17th March 1977, column 267, regarding 176W sterilisations, he will now up-date the information in his answer and provide the separate figures for male and female sterilisations which were main operations.
§ Mr. MoyleThe figures for each available year subsequent to those in my reply on 17th March—[Vol. 928, c.267—are as follows:
MALE STERILISATIONS (VASECTOMIES) CARRIED OUT IN NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE FAMILY PLANNING CLINICS IN ENGLAND Regional health authority 1976 Northern 587 Yorkshire 301 Trent 2,446 East Anglia Nil North-West Thames 1,248 North-East Thames 673 South-East Thames 126 South-West Thames 2,555 Wessex 1,687 Oxford 1,077 South Western 557 West Midland 2,643 Mersey 555 North Western 2,429 16,884
STERILISATIONS DURING IN-PATIENT SPELLS IN ENGLAND AND WALES Estimated numbers 1974 1975 Female sterilisations which were main operations* 33,800 23,200 Male sterilisations which were main operations 4,100 2,400 Estimated length of stay in hospital for women the main operation ' Division and ligation of oviducts' 8.5 days 8.4 days * Figures for all years prior to 1975 necessarily included a small number of operations on the oviduct which did not result in sterilisation.