asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many births have taken place at Horsham Hospital in each of the last 10 years; how many at Crawley hospital; and how many babies and mothers have died in childbirth at each hospital.

Information relating to live births is as follows:

Year	Horsham Hospital	Crawley Hospital
1968	486	1,363
1969	450	1,414
1970	422	1,536
1971	447	1,533
1972	466	1,538
1973	364	1,507
1974	361*	1,392*
1975	291	1,375
1976	281	1,562
1977	246	1,637
*Estimate (accurate statistics not collected for this year).

Information relating to maternal and neonatal deaths is not readily available for the period requested. Since 1st January 1971 there has been one maternal death at Crawley hospital and none at Horsham. Since 1st Apirl 1974, there have been 44 neonatal deaths at Crawley hospital and none at Horsham hospital. These figures are affected by the referral of difficult cases to Crawley hospital.