§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the sample of 173,000 births in England in 1988–89 referred to in his answer of 22 October,Official Report, columns 33–34, which were used to estimate induction rates, instrumental delivery rates and Caesarean section rates were a random sample of births in all regions and districts of England in each month of 1988–89; and how many of these records did not have information recorded about (a) onset of labour or (b) method of delivery.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 7 December 1990]: The 173,000 records were those submitted by health authorities with method of delivery and method of onset of labour recorded. Due to teething problems with new data collections some health authorities were unable to submit a fully coded record for each delivery. The available data are thus not a random sample, but checks showed that the information given in the answer of 22 October at columns 33–34 was consistent with earlier figures.