§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the infant mortality rate was in 2003. [152560]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Tim Loughton, dated 3 February 2004:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the infant mortality rate was in 2003. (152560)832WThe most recent complete year for which infant mortality data is available is 2002, when the rate for England and Wales was 5.2 per 1,000 live births. This covers deaths to babies aged less than one year and excludes still-births.Annual figures for infant mortality in England and Wales are routinely published in the DH3 series 'Mortality Statistics: Childhood, infant and perinatal'. Provisional figures for the first two quarters of 2003 were first published in Health Statistics Quarterly number 20, Winter 2003 edition (Table 2.1). These publications are available in the libraries of both Houses.