§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answers of 25 April 2002 and 4 July 2002,Official Report, columns 461W and 571W, if he will reconcile the statement that his Department does not collect statistics on the incidence of individual conditions with the statement that his Department collects and uses a wide range of data on morbidity according to the condition of interest and the context of the question to be answered; and if he will collect statistics on Duchenne muscular dystrophy. [70396]
§ Jacqui SmithAs the response to my hon. Friend on 4 July,Official Report, column 571W states, we do have information on a wide range of conditions, in particular for deaths and hospital admissions which are coded accorded to the international classification of diseases in line with practice in other countries. These can answer many questions, but where there is not a specific code for the condition this is not possible. In the case of Duchenne muscular dystrophy this is included within an overall code for muscular dystrophy and is therefore not separately identifiable. We have no plans for collecting separate data in this area.