§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many birth defects there were in each of the last five years in England. [160624]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mrs. Iris Robinson, dated 15 March 2004.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for the number of birth defects in each of the last five years in England. (160624)The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for maintaining the National Congenital Anomaly System (NCAS) notifications in England and Wales. These notifications are collected only for live and stillbirths (e.g. terminations are excluded) and are provided by NHS Trusts on a voluntary basis either directly to ONS or via local congenital anomaly registers that exchange data with ONS.In 1997 there were no registers exchanging information with NCAS. By 2001, NCAS received more complete information from four local congenital anomaly registers through multi-source 95W ascertainment. As a result, numbers of notifications in England and Wales have increased since 1997. These registers cover all births in Wales and 24 per cent. of births in England. For the remaining areas NCAS relies solely on SD56 notification forms and is likely to be less complete. Up to eight malformations can be recorded on the system for each baby.Estimates of the figures requested, covering the latest five year period are shown in the attached table.
Estimated numbers of malformations recorded, 1997–2001, England Estimated number of malformations notified 1997 6,753 1998 6,516 1999 8,575 2000 9,273 2001 8,027 Source:
Estimates based on numbers of babies notified to National Congenital Anomaly System at 31 July 2002 (Health Statistics Quarterly no. 16 Annual update: Congenital anomaly statistics —notifications 2001) and the number of malformations recorded for each notified case.