§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what assessment he has made of the relative merits of(a) the confidential inquiry into stillbirths and deaths in infancy statistical exercise and (b) the discontinued form LHS 27/1; if he will list the principal points of difference between the two; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RedwoodThe confidential inquiry into stillbirths and deaths in Wales is a detailed study of deaths of babies after the onset of labour and within the first two weeks of life where the birthweight was greater than 1499 grammes and there and there was no gross or life-threatening abnormality. It seeks to inform and improve clinical practice by increasing the understanding of ways in which numbers of deaths might be diminished, with particular regard to identifying departures from accepted standards of care which could have played a part in the ensuing death.
The discontinued LHS 27/1 return simply recorded the total number of live births and stillbirths to residents of the district health authority and births, stillbirths and deaths in the first 28 days, analysed by weight. It was discontinued as the central requirements that it covered were available routinely from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.