HL Deb 24 October 1984 vol 456 cc265-70WA
Baroness Vickers

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many cot deaths there were in England, Wales, and Scotland respectively in 1983, and whether they will break down the numbers to indicate deaths for each month.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Lord Glenarthur)

The information requested is shown in the table which relates to deaths registered in 1983

Table 1

Cot deaths (any mention) by regional health authority, social class and legitimacy, 1982 England and Wales
Regional Health Authority All* Legitimate by social class Illegitimate
All* I II IIIN IIIM IV V Number Percentage of all deaths
England and Wales 1,315 982 54 181 79 335 167 96 333 25.3
Northern 76 60 2 11 4 23 9 7 16 21.1
Yorkshire 99 71 2 11 9 22 14 8 28 28.3
Trent 113 85 5 11 5 29 18 11 28 24.8
East Anglian 49 36 1 3 4 15 8 1 13 26.5
North West Thames 108 79 4 18 8 26 14 5 29 26.9
North East Thames 87 64 5 15 2 19 11 7 23 26.4
South East Thames 103 67 3 17 5 21 10 5 36 35.0
South West Thames 77 61 8 13 9 16 8 4 16 20.8
Wessex 72 59 2 9 2 16 9 10 13 18.1
Oxford 56 46 4 10 1 17 8 2 10 17.9
South Western 104 85 6 12 5 34 10 7 19 18.3
West Midlands 143 99 5 23 9 39 15 6 44 30.8
Mersey 64 51 3 8 4 19 12 5 13 20.3
North Western 104 69 2 10 3 29 12 9 35 33.7
Wales 59 49 2 10 8 10 9 9 10 16.9
*The totals include residual social class groups in inadequately described occupations.
1. Regional health authority—usual residence of mother.
2. Legitimacy—legitimacy at birth.
3. Social class is derived from fathers occupation as recorded on the child's death certificate.
4. Information similar to that in 3 above is not available for all deaths of illegitimate infants.
5. As these figures are derived from a linked file they may differ slightly from those previously published.

where cot death, sudden infant death syndrome, or similar term was mentioned on the death certificate.

Mentions of infant cot deaths by month of registration*, 1983 England, Wales and Scotland
Month of registration England Wales Scotland
January 134 7 16
February 163 5 15
March 141 7 12
April 95 2 13
May 107 5 17
June 70 7 6
July 56 3 7
August 52 2 8
September 78 4 6
October 74 9 9
November 140 9 10
December 142 3 18
TOTAL 1,252 63 137
*Figures for Scotland are by month of occurrence.

Baroness Vickers

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will publish figures for cot deaths in each of the health regions and districts in (i) England and Wales, and (ii) Scotland in total and sub-divided into socio-economic class of the parents, for the year 1982 and 1983; what percentage were infants of single parents; and what percentage of live births there were in each socio-economic class in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 respectively.

Lord Glenarthur:

The available information for England and Wales and Scotland is given in the table and relates to the numbers of deaths registered where "cot deaths", "sudden infant death syndrome" or similar terms were mentioned on the death certificate. The England and Wales figures for 1982 are derived from a procedure which links deaths with the relevant births; the 1983 linked data are not yet available. Figures for cot deaths of all illegitimate babies have been supplied for 1982 for England and Wales, as these are available from the linked file. Accurate information concerning infants of single parents is not collected for either country.

The tables relate to regional health authorities. Annual data are not released for individual district health authorities because the small number of events precludes meaningful comparisons. Data for aggregated years will be issued when 1983 figures become available. The 1982 data cannot be aggregated with earlier data because of changes in health area boundaries in 1983.

Table 2

Live births by legitimacy and regional health authority: percentage distribution by social class, 1980 to 1982
England and Wales
Legitimate Illegitimate
All*(= 100) Social class All Social class
1980 I II III IV V I II III IV V
England 544,958 7.1 21.5 47.4 15.2 5.3 73,413
Northern 36,117 5.2 17.0 49.7 17.5 8.5 5,074 Social class analysis not available
Yorkshire 41,594 5.3 18.9 48.0 17.6 7.3 6,145
Trent 53,328 5.8 19.2 49.8 17.3 5.4 7,028
East Anglian 22,536 7.3 19.9 46.4 13.5 4.2 2,246
North West Thames 41,994 10.6 26.8 43.2 12.9 3.7 5,530
North East Thames 44,664 6.8 22.8 48.1 15.2 4.4 6,934
South East Thames. 38,888 7.2 25.2 47.0 11.9 5.4 6,793
South West Thames. 31,733 12.9 29.7 42.5 10.3 2.6 3,555
Wessex 31,100 8.2 21.3 43.7 11.2 3.5 3,094
Oxford 30,085 10.0 23.9 46.1 12.4 3.6 2,931
South Western 35,406 6.4 22.8 47.0 13.6 4.6 3,753
West Midlands 62,838 5.7 19.0 50.0 17.9 5.5 8,348
Mersey 27,960 5.0 19.7 46.7 18.7 8.4 4,305
North Western 46,715 6.0 18.3 49.8 17.3 7.0 7,677
Wales 33,461 5.7 18.2 47.7 15.2 10.5 3,896
1981
England 521,247 7.5 22.3 46.7 14.4 5.4 76,912
Northern 34,580 6.1 17.8 49.3 16.3 8.7 5,263
Yorkshire 40,058 5.7 20.5 46.5 16.9 7.1 6,389
Trent
East Anglian† 21,442 7.3 23.6 41.0 14.9 4.4 2,245
North West Thames
North East Thames
South East Thames† 37,478 7.7 25.4 46.9 11.6 5.5 7,027
South West Thames
Wessex 29,922 7.7 21.3 41.8 12.1 4.2 3,298
Oxford 28,686 9.6 25.9 44.8 11.0 4.2 2,947
South Western 33,613 6.9 23.8 44.5 12.9 4.3 3,983
West Midlands 58,815 6.0 19.8 49.6 17.0 5.4 8,641
Mersey† 27,062 6.9 18.8 47.2 16.3 9.2 47,780
North Western
Wales 31,821 6.7 19.0 46.8 14.3 10.0 4,022
1982
England 504,523 7.8 22.2 46.3 14.6 5.5 85,188
Northern 33,379 5.7 16.3 50.5 15.6 9.9 5,913
Yorkshire 38,747 6.5 19.2 47.5 17.1 6.7 7,062
Trent 48,315 5.9 19.0 49.4 17.5 5.3 8,078
East Anglian 20,386 8.2 21.0 41.2 14.8 5.1 2,448
North West Thames 39,500 11.7 28.9 42.8 10.6 3.0 6,136
North East Thames 41,671 7.5 24.0 47.1 14.9 4.0 7,787
South East Thames 36,097 8.2 24.9 45.6 12.2 5.4 7,740
South West Thames 30,421 13.5 31.2 40.9 8.2 3.0 4,090
Wessex 29,140 7.9 22.0 44.0 12.4 4.0 3,688
Oxford 27,821 9.6 26.1 43.1 11.9 4.1 3,357
South Western 31,115 7.4 23.9 45.0 13.1 4.1 4.179
West Midlands 58,112 6.2 19.4 48.8 17.3 5.6 9,780
Mersey 26,054 6.4 18.6 46.1 17.7 9.5 5,387
North Western 43,765 6.3 19.4 48.9 16.4 7.0 9,543
Wales 31,106 5.3 20.2 45.4 15.5 10.0 4,614
*The totals include residual social class groups in inadequately described occupations.
†Live birth distributions are estimated from a national 10 per cent. sample.
. . Not available.

Table 3

Sudden death in infancy syndrome (any mention), under one year of age, Scotland 1983
Region Health Board Area Social Class*
Total I II IIINM lllM IV V NS
All Areas 137 5 15 12 47 18 18 22
Highland 9 1 2 — 3 1 1 1
Orkney — — — — — — — —
Shetland — — — — — — — —
Western Isles — — — — — — — —
Grampian 13 1 2 2 3 2 — 3
Tayside 7 — 1 2 2 — 2 —
Fife 12 — — 2 8 — 1 1
Lothian 26 1 5 1 9 2 6 2
Borders 7 — 1 — 3 2 1 —
Central 2 1 — — — 1 — —
Argyll and Clyde 16 1 — 2 4 1 2 6
Greater Glasgow 27 — 1 2 10 4 3 7
Lanarkshire 6 — — — 3 2 — 1
Ayrshire and Arrar 9 — 1 1 2 2 2 1
Dumfries and Gallt 3 — 2 — — 1 — —
* Social class is assigned according to the father's occupation for deaths of legitimate infants and according to the mother's occupation, if stated, for deaths of illegitimate infants. Separate figures for cot deaths of illegitimate infants are not readily available.

Table 4

Live births by legitimacy and region and health board: Percentage distribution by social class, 1980 to 1983.
Scotland
Legitimate Illegitimate
All* (= 100) Social class All (= 100) Social class
I II III IV V I II III IV V
1980
Scotland 61,214 7.7 18.3 51.3 14.7 7.9 7,678 20 7.4 38.3 36.7 3.3
Highland 2,573 5.2 19.5 54.1 16.1 4.9 313 2.6 8.9 38.7 25.9 4.2
Orkney 246 3.7 29.3 37.4 27.2 3.2 14 — 7.1 35.7 21.4 14.3
Shetland 342 4.7 18.1 49.4 21.9 5.8 34 2.9 8.8 29.4 38.2 5.9
Western Isles 342 5.8 17.0 53.2 16.1 7.9 32 3.1 6.2 31.2 25.0 —
Grampian 5,910 9.3 18.0 50.6 17.7 4.2 581 1.5 8.3 48.2 27.5 3.8
Tavside 4,196 7.6 20.6 50.0 15.1 6.7 651 4.1 9.4 35.6 42.5 2.2
Fife 4,168 8.2 16.7 56.0 12.5 6.5 449 2.4 6.9 33.2 35.6 4.7
Lothian 8,384 11.7 21.9 48.7 11.9 5.7 963 2.6 9.9 45.1 29.2 3.2
Borders 1,025 6.4 24.5 44 .1 19.8 5.1 102 — 6.9 44.1 27.5 2.9
Central (Forth Valley) 3,292 7.2 18.1 51.0 14.5 9.2 356 2.2 9.6 34.3 36.5 7.0
Strathclyde 29,150 6.6 16.7 52.0 14.4 10. 1 3,985 1.5 6.4 36.7 40.5 2.9
Aryll and Clyde 5,612 6.6 17.1 54.2 14.3 7.8 701 1.9 7.7 36.1 40.5 3.6
Greater Glasgow 11,302 8.1 16.0 50.0 14.6 11.2 2,048 0.8 6.2 38.6 40.0 3.2
Lanarkshire 7,696 5.3 16.2 53.6 13.3 11.5 689 1.5 6.7 34.0 41.4 2.0
Ayrshire and Arran 4,540 5.4 18.9 52.0 16.0 7.7 547 3.5 5.1 33.8 40.8 2.2
Dumfries and Galloway 1,586 4.7 21.6 47.5 20.2 5.8 198 1.S 3.5 34.8 32.8 1.0
1981
Scotland 60,607 7.8 18. 1 51.0 14.7 8.3 8,447 2.2 7.4 37.6 35.7 3.7
Highland 2,540 6.5 19.0 51.3 16.7 6.4 325 1.8 7.7 39.1 26.8 4.0
Orkney 230 4.8 31.7 34.3 23.9 4.8 22 4.5 13.6 45.5 13. 6 —
Shetland 303 3.6 18.8 49.8 20.8 6.3 26 — — 34.6 34.6 —
Western Isles 375 2.4 16.5 58.9 14.4 7.7 32 3.1 3.1 31.2 34.4 9.4
Grampian 5,779 9.9 19.0 48.8 17.3 5.0 682 1.9 6.9 49.9 24.6 4.5
Tayside 4,192 7.8 20.5 49.1 15.7 6.9 736 3.5 10.2 35.6 41.3 3.3
Fife 4,242 7.4 16.6 55.7 12.9 7.2 522 4.4 7.1 30.5 31.6 3.8
Lothian 8,123 11.3 20.5 49.4 12.4 6.3 1,089 2.6 8.1 42.7 31.5 3.0
Borders 1,056 7.6 26.0 42.3 18.7 5.4 114 0.9 3.5 36.8 36.8 4.4
Central (Forth Valley) 3,141 7.2 18.1 51.8 13.5 9.4 397 2.3 8.8 30.5 34.5 6.5
Strathclyde 29,008 7.0 16.4 52.0 14.3 10.2 4,315 1.8 6.9 36.4 38.9 3.6
Argyll and Clyde 5,492 6.7 16.3 53.6 14.0 9.3 781 2.0 6.5 35.3 38.9 5.9
Greater Glasgow 11,189 8.4 16.0 49.7 14.8 10. 8 2,201 1.4 7.0 39.2 37.8 3.2
Lanarkshire 7,792 5.6 15.6 54.4 13.1 11.2 733 1.5 7.9 33.8 38.9 3.1
Ayrshire and Arran 4,535 6.3 18.9 51.5 15.5 7.7 600 3.0 5.8 30.3 42.7 2.7
Dumfries and Galloway 1,618 4.4 22.2 47.5 19.3 6.5 187 0.5 8.0 33.2 34.8 1.6
1982
Scotland 56,801 8.2 18.4 50.2 14.5 8.4 9,395 2.0 7.2 37.1 33.9 3.2
Highland 2,283 6.8 19.2 50.5 16.3 6.7 332 2.1 9.0 38.3 27.1 2.7
Orkney 215 7.0 30.7 36.7 22.3 3.3 20 — 20.0 30.0 20.0 —
Shetland 309 5.8 19.1 48.9 19.4 6.1 35 2.9 5.7 48.6 34.3 2.9
Western Isles 358 5.9 15.9 56.4 15.1 5.9 40 10.0 7.5 25.0 15.0 5.0
Grampian 5,724 10.1 18.8 48.9 17.5 4.6 748 1.6 7.6 44.9 26.7 4.3
Tayside 3,955 7.6 20.0 49.3 15.4 7.5 763 3.8 7.3 33.3 43.3 2.1
Fife 3,928 9.4 16.5 53.7 12.1 7.9 569 3.3 8.4 30.9 28.6 4.4
Lothian 7,786 11.6 21.2 48.2 12.4 6.2 1,234 2.6 8.3 43.5 30.3 2.3
Borders 962 8.6 22.3 44.4 18.7 5.4 114 0.9 6.1 39.5 28.1 2.6
Central (Forth Valley) 2,957 7.3 18.3 50.4 14.3 9.5 450 1.1 6.0 33.3 31.6 6.4
Strathclyde 26,850 7.2 17.2 51.1 14.0 10.4 4,848 1.5 6.8 36.1 36.2 3.3
Argyll and Clyde 5,173 7.1 17.5 52.7 14.2 8.3 859 2.1 7.2 31.0 39.7 4.4
Greater Glasgow 10,324 8.4 17.6 48.4 14.1 11.2 2,484 1.1 6.6 38.7 34.3 3.1
Lanarkshire 7,117 5.9 16.3 52.8 12.8 11.9 857 1.6 8.2 34.1 38.4 2.6
Ayrshire and Arran 4,236 6.3 17.3 52.6 15.3 8.2 648 2.2 5.1 35.5 35.8 3.4
Dumfries and Galloway 1,474 5.2 20.9 46.7 20.7 6.3 242 0.4 5.4 30.6 31.4 0.4
1983
Scotland 55,497 8.5 18.5 49.3 15.0 8.5 9,581 2.5 7.6 36.2 32.8 3.1
Highland 2,269 7.2 19.4 48.7 17.7 6.7 329 3.3 6.1 40.1 24.3 1.8
Orkney 204 3.9 29.9 34.3 27.5 3.9 18 11.1 22.2 11.1 16.7 5.6
Shetland 285 7.0 18.6 43.9 23.2 7.0 31 — 9.7 41.9 25.8 6.5
Western Isles 318 6.9 15.7 60.1 11.9 5.0 39 2.6 5.1 33.3 20.5 —
Grampian. 5,724 10. 4 19.9 46.9 18.7 4.1 783 2.8 8.4 46.2 25.2 3.6
Tayside 3,891 9.0 19.9 47.8 15.9 7.3 849 4.4 7.4 37.1 37.5 1.4
Fife 3,822 8.3 17.2 52.6 13.1 8.4 589 3.7 6.3 28.9 32.8 3.4
Lothian 7,508 12.6 21.1 47.7 11.8 6.6 1,202 3.0 10.3 42.5 27.2 2.9
Borders 999 7.4 23.9 42.7 20.0 5.9 113 1.8 12.4 26.5 23.0 6.2
Central (Fourth Valley) 2,905 8.1 17.7 48.4 15.2 10.6 455 1.1 7.3 26.4 33.2 6.2
Strathclyde 26,112 7.3 16.9 50.8 14.3 10.4 4,973 1.9 6.8 35.2 35.6 3.1
Argyll and Clyde 5,101 6.6 17.3 52.6 13.9 9.5 835 1.9 6.3 32 .1 39.4 4.1
Greater Glasgow 10,035 9.1 17.0 48.6 14.3 10.8 2,557 1.7 7.3 36.0 34.8 2.9
Lanarkshire 6,812 5.7 16.3 52.4 13.9 11.5 924 1.8 7.7 35.8 34.6 2.5
Ayrshire and Arran 4,164 6.7 17.3 51.2 15.5 8.9 657 2.9 4.4 35.2 35.2 3.3
Dumfries and Galloway 1,460 5. 1 22.7 44.4 21.2 6.4 200 2.0 9.5 27.5 29.0 1.5
* The totals include residual social class groups in inadequately described occupations.