§ Stephen HesfordTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the latest death rate figures for cancer are for England; and what they were in 1996–97. [162770]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen Hesford, dated 22 March 2004:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for the latest death rate figures for cancer for England; and what these were in 1996–97. (162770)The latest year for which data are available is 2002. Figures for cancer are shown in the table below for the calendar years 1996,1997 and 2002.648W
Age-standardised death rate1 for cancer2 by sex in England, 1996,1997 and 20023 Calendar Year Males Females 1996 248.4 169.4 1997 240.6 166.7 20024 233.9 161.1 1Death rate at all ages per 100,000 population, age-standardised to the European standard population.
2 The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases. Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 140–208 for the years 1996 and 1997, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes C00-C97 for 2002.
3 Figures are based on deaths occurring in each calendar year.
4 The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 resulted in the number of deaths coded as cancer at all ages increasing by 2.5% for males and 2.2% for females. For this reason rates are not completely comparable with those for years before this date and the figures should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effect of the change in classification in 2001 on deaths from cancer was published in Health Statistics Quarterly in May 2002.*
* Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.