§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many sudden unexpected deaths from epilepsy there were in(a)Leeds West, (b) City of Leeds and (c) West Yorkshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [116183]
192W
§ John HealeyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. John Battle dated 3 June 2003:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question concerning how many sudden unexpected deaths from epilepsy there were in (a) Leeds West, (b) City of Leeds and (c) West Yorkshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available. am replying in his absence. (116183)Figures for Leeds are only readily available for Leeds Metropolitan District. These figures, and those for West Yorkshire, are given in the attached table. The total numbers of deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy are also provided as context for the numbers that are "sudden unexpected deaths".
Number of deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy1 and among those where "sudden unexpected death in epilepsy"2 was
mentioned on the death certificate, West Yorkshire Metropolitan
County and Leeds Metropolitan District,3 1997 to 20014
Number of deaths West Yorkshire Leeds All Sudden unexpected
All Sudden unexpected
1997 30 5 6 — 1998 37 — 16 — 1999 35 5 12 — 2000 39 5 12 5 2001 48 5 8 — 1 Cause of death selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 345 for the years 1997 to
2000, and, for the year 2001, the International Classification of
Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes G40 and G4L. The
introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means
that data for epilepsy in this year are not comparable with data for
earlier years. The introduction of ICD-10 has led to an apparent
increase of 1 per cent. for males and 23 per cent. for females in the
number of deaths coded to epilepsy. While the effect of the change
to ICD-10 may have led to an overall increase in the number of
deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy in 2001, it is not
possible to determine the effect on "sudden unexpected deaths in
epilepsy".
2 Deaths where "sudden unexpected death in epilepsy" or similar wording (e.g. "sudden unexplained death in epilepsy") was written
on the death certificate.
3 Figures relate to deaths of usual residents of these areas. 4 Figures are for deaths which occurred in these years. 5 Fewer than 5 deaths. -Zero deaths