HC Deb 11 December 1980 vol 995 cc451-2W
Mr. Dempsey

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many abortions have been carried out in Great Britain in each year since 1967.

Sir George Young

The number of legal abortions carried out in Great Britain in each year was:

*1968 25,178
1969 58,363
1970 91,819
1971 133,109
1972 167,493
1973 174,647
1974 170,485
1975 147,002
1976 136,856
1977 140,287
1978 149,011
1979 157,500
* eight months only.

Dr. Mawhinney

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what changes he is considering in the method of notifying to the Chief Medical Officer details of abortions carried out under the Abortion Act 1967.

Dr. Vaughan

A number of changes in the abortion notification system are necessary to take account of practices which have evolved since the original abortion regulations were made in 1968. Regulations have been laid which provide for the introduction of a new abortion notification form designed to provide better information about certain aspects of abortion which have attracted public and professional concern. These include the period of gestation, which is relevant to the more reliable identification on cases of late abortion, and monitoring changes in abortion practice, such as day care and agency arrangements between the National Health Service and the private sector.

The new form will also reduce the volume of confidential personal and medical data collected about individual cases. At present, confidential data collected through the notification system are retained indefinitely. I do not think this is either necessary or desirable and I have decided that in future all personal particulars, including the notification forms themselves, will be destroyed three years after the date of the operation. This arrangement will mean that the notification forms will be retained for the same period of time that the operating practitioner is required to retain the certificate of opinion given under section 1(1) of the Abortion Act 1967.

As well as providing better information, these changes will enable a reduction to be made in the number of clerical and technical staff engaged in processing the forms at the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.

The new form will be introduced on 1 March 1981.