The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated May 2008:"As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the age standardised incidence of prostate cancer was in (a) spearhead primary care trusts and (b) England in the latest period for which figures are available. [206401]""The spearhead group is defined in terms of local authorities. Spearhead primary care organisations (PCOs) are those which overlap geographically with any of the area defined by the spearhead local authorities. For most, the whole of the PCO area overlaps with the spearhead local authorities, but some only partially overlap.""The attached table presents age standardised incidence rates and the number of registrations of prostate cancer in England and in the spearhead group. Figures are also presented for each PCO overlapping with the spearhead group. All figures are for 2005, the latest year available. An estimate of the percentage of the PCO population in the spearhead group in 2002 is also shown." Table 1. Age-standardised incidence rates of prostate cancer per 100,000 population¹, ², ³ England, Spearhead group and primary care organisations, 20054 Area Incidence rate 95% confidence interval Number of registrations Percentage of PCO population within the spearhead group5 England 95.6 (94.5 - 96.7) 28,887 — Spearhead group 96.2 (94.3 - 98.2) 9,806 — Barking and Dagenham 83 (63 - 104) 63 100 Greenwich Teaching 83 (65 - 101) 81 100 Hammersmith and Fulham 110 (85 - 135) 75 100 Haringey Teaching 126 (101 - 151) 98 100 Islington 98 (75 - 122) 67 100 Lambeth 124 (101 - 148) 109 100 Lewisham 78 (61 - 96) 75 100 Newham 63 (46 - 80) 53 100 Southwark 85 (67 - 104) 80 100 Tower Hamlets 60 (42 - 78) 41 100 Bolton 95 (79 - 110) 142 100 Bury 127 (106 - 148) 136 100 Manchester 106 (91 - 120) 205 100 Oldham 144 (122 - 166) 171 100 Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale 116 (96 - 136) 130 100 Salford 103 (85 - 122) 126 100 Ashton, Leigh and Wigan 117 (101 - 133) 209 100 Knowsley 96 (74 - 118) 74 100 Liverpool 93 (81 - 105) 221 100 Halton and St. Helens 83 (70 - 97) 143 100 Wirral 79 (67 - 91) 166 100 Barnsley 86 (71 - 102) 120 100 Doncaster 62 (51 - 73) 113 100 Rotherham 51 (40 - 63) 79 100 Gateshead 126 (105 - 146) 148 100 Newcastle 57 (45 - 69) 91 100 North Tyneside 87 (70 - 103) 106 100 South Tyneside 68 (52 - 85) 64 100 Sunderland Teaching 92 (78 - 107) 156 100 South Birmingham 122 (106 - 138) 220 100 Coventry Teaching 114 (98 - 130) 194 100 Sandwell 78 (65 - 91) 132 100 Walsall Teaching 121 (104 - 138) 193 100 Wolverhampton City 118 (100 - 135) 174 100 Bradford and Airedale 85 (74 - 97) 212 100 Wakefield District 96 (82 - 110) 186 100 Hartlepool 68 (46 - 91) 36 100 Middlesbrough 135 (109 - 161) 103 100 Redcar and Cleveland 104 (84 - 125) 97 100 North Tees 74 (58 - 90) 79 100 Warrington 57 (43 - 71) 61 100 Blackburn with Darwen 84 (63 - 106) 59 100 Blackpool 86 (68 - 104) 90 100 Hull 86 (70 - 102) 116 100 Leicester City 69 (55 - 83) 95 100 Nottingham City 74 (59 - 88) 98 100 Heart of Birmingham Teaching 106 (86 - 125) 112 100 Birmingham East and North 107 (94 - 121) 233 100 North East Lincolnshire 89 (70 - 107) 89 100 Stoke on Trent 68 (55 - 81) 104 97 City and Hackney Teaching 98 (76 - 120) 74 96 Tameside and Glossop 105 (88 - 122) 146 87 East Lancashire 103 (89 - 116) 232 86 County Durham 77 (67 - 86) 247 77 Northumberland 106 (92 - 120) 229 46 Cumbria 83 (74 - 93) 299 35 Central Lancashire 143 (129 - 157) 379 29 Warwickshire 90 (80 - 100) 308 23 Lincolnshire 118 (108 - 127) 612 13 South Staffordshire 104 (93 - 114) 393 13 Derbyshire County 88 (80 - 97) 430 10 Northamptonshire 114 (103 - 125) 432 8 ¹ Age standardised incidence rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the European Standard Population. Age standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. ² Confidence intervals are a measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and show the range of uncertainty around the estimated figure. Calculations based on small numbers of events are often subject to random fluctuations. As a general rule, if the confidence intervals around one figure overlaps with the interval around another, we cannot say with certainty that there is more than a chance difference between the two figures. ³ Prostate cancer incidence was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD- 10) codeC61. 4 Based on boundaries as of 2008. 5 Percentages based on PCO population as at 2002.