HC Deb 15 April 1980 vol 982 cc598-9W
Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will publish in the Official Report the machinery by which information about the birth of children with deformities is collected; if he will publish the number of such births in each of the last five years; if he will express these as a percentage of all births; whether any information on the drugs taken by women who give birth to children with congenital malformations is collected: and, if so, by whom and in what form;

(2) if he will establish machinery to collect information about the drugs taken during pregnancy by women who (a) have miscarriages and (b) have stillborn babies.

Dr. Vaughan

The method of collecting information about the birth of children with malformations is described in published reports by staff of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. In view of their length, I am arranging for copies of these reports to be sent to the right hon. Gentleman and placed in the Library of the House.

The number of babies—live and still—having malformations at birth notified in the last five years for which figures are available are as follows:

Year Number of malformed babies Percentage of all live and still births
1974 12,729 1.97
1975 12,230 2.01
1976 12,384 2.10
1977 12,402 2.16
1978 12,767 2.12

Information on the use of drugs taken by women who give birth to children with congenital malformations is collected for the survey carried out by the Committee on Safety of Medicines and referred to in my reply to the right hon. Gentleman on 3 April. This is based on a sample of children with malformations notified to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys together with data for normal babies.

The central collection of additional data on drugs taken by women during pregnancy who have miscarriages or have stillborn babies would have considerable resource implications, but the possibility of doing so will be kept under review.

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