§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will cause to be printed in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1977 the incidence of venereal disease, the number of abortions and the number of pregnancies amongst those aged under 16 years.
§ Dr. VaughanInformation relating to those aged under 16 years is available for England and Wales in the following form:
New cases of primary and secondary syphilis and post pubertal gonorrhea seen at NHS hospital clinics.* Abortions in NHS hospitals and other approved places.† Maternities‡ 1977 584 3,624 1,327 1978 458 3,298 1,397 1979 410 3,534 1,386 * An age breakdown of new patients with other sexually transmitted diseases is not available centrally. † Residents of England and Wales only. ‡ A maternity denotes a pregnancy which resulted hi the birth of one or more live or stillborn children. In addition to these pregnancies, there are some occuring in girls under the age of 16 which result in abortions and maternities after that age. There is no firm information on these, but a recent estimate indicated that in 1979 a total of approximately 10,000 conceptions took place in girls under 16.