asked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will give a breakdown by number of previous children of those women resident in Scotland upon whom abortions were performed in each of the following years: 1969, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983;(2) if he will give a breakdown by marital status of the women of the total number of abortions performed in each of the following years on resident women in Scotland in 1969, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983;(3) if he will give a breakdown of the number of abortions performed in Scotland on resident women by the statutory grounds for which those abortions were performed in each of the following years: 1969, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983; and what was the total number of abortions performed on such women in each of those years.

Information about abortions performed in Scotland showing parity, marital state and statutory grounds for abortion is given in section 5 of "Scottish Health Statistics," published annually and available in the Library.The 1974 edition also includes data on marital state and statutory grounds for the years 1969 and 1970 but gives parity for 1974 only. Parity

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give a breakdown of the total number of abortions performed on women resident in Scotland by the following gestational ages of the foetus: under nine weeks, nine weeks, 10 weeks, 11 weeks, 12 weeks, 13 weeks, 14 weeks, 15 to 19 weeks, 20 to 23 weeks and over 24 weeks in each of the following years: 1969, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983.

Data are not available in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The nearest available information to that requested is for periods of gestation under 10 weeks, 10 to 13 weeks, 14 to 17 weeks, 18 to 19 weeks, 20 to 24 weeks and 25 weeks and over; details for 1975 and the later years requested are given in table 5·3 of "Scottish Health Statistics" 1982 and 1983, copies of which are in the Library. The figures for 1969 are: