§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people each week in the United Kingdom contribute to conceptions that are terminated legally and deliberately in the United Kingdom. [29673]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Peter Bottomley, dated 19 February 1998:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me, as Director of the Office for National Statistics, to reply to your recent question on the number of people in the United Kingdom who contribute to conceptions that are terminated legally and deliberately in the United Kingdom.Over the period July 1996 to June 1997, the latest 12 months for which information is available, there were an average of 3,460 abortions each week notified as being performed in Great Britain on residents of the United Kingdom.The Abortion Act 1967 applies to England, Wales and Scotland. The Act does not apply to Northern Ireland, where less than a hundred legal abortions are performed each year on medical grounds in health service hospitals under case law, as was the legal situation in England and Wales before the 1967 Act.