Infant and Perinatal Mortality

HC Deb 16 January 1996 vol 269 cc554-5W

Mr. Mark Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the change in(a) infant mortality rates and (b) perinatal mortality rates since 1979. [7498]

Mr. Horam

Infant and perinatal mortality rates have fallen, between 1979 and 1994, to the lowest levels ever recorded. Deaths in children under one year of age—the infant mortality rate—have fallen by half. Stillbirths and deaths of babies less than a week old—the perinatal rate—have fallen by nearly 40 per cent.