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Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what percentage of children in each district health authority in Kent, in each of the last 10 years, has been born with physical and mental handicaps.
Mrs. Currie
I regret that the exact information requested is not available centrally. However, the hon. Member may be interested in the table, which shows readily available information from the registration of live and still births, and from the notification of congenital malformations. These notifications are based on a voluntary system of reporting malformations noticed at birth, or within seven days of birth, and may therefore exclude certain anomalies.
| Number of total live and still births, and number of notifications of congenital malformations to mothers resident in District Health Authorities (DHA) in Kent | ||||
| 1983 to 1986 | ||||
| Area of usual residence DHA | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
| Total live and stillbirths | ||||
| South East Kent | 2,981 | 2,968 | 3,190 | 3,319 |
| Canterbury and Thanet | 3,235 | 3,225 | 3,390 | 3,555 |
| Dartford and Gravesham | 2,810 | 2,839 | 3,037 | 3,013 |
| Infant mortality rate1for health areas in Kent 1977–1986 | ||||||||||
| Year | ||||||||||
| Area of usual residence | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
| South East Kent | 8·8 | 12·5 | 15·3 | 10·3 | 10·4 | 11·4 | 7·8 | 9·5 | 8·5 | 8·2 |
| Canterbury and Thanet | 13·7 | 13·5 | 10·6 | 9·9 | 10·1 | 12·7 | 10·9 | 11·5 | 9·2 | 8·2 |
| Dartford and Gravesham | 10·2 | 13·0 | 9·6 | 13·6 | 10·2 | 10·3 | 25·7 | 7·8 | 10·0 | 8·7 |
| Maidstone | 11·0 | 11·4 | 12·1 | 11·5 | 11·5 | 27·5 | 10·5 | 27·6 | 8·8 | 11·1 |
| Medway | 12·6 | 13·1 | 12·8 | 11·5 | 13·5 | 9·3 | 13·0 | 8·7 | 8·8 | 7·9 |
| Tunbridge Wells | 10·6 | 9·9 | 8·8 | 14·2 | 12·9 | 29·3 | 26·6 | 28·4 | 28·2 | 26·0 |
| 1 Deaths under one year per 1,000 live births. Figures for 1977·80 are for health districts, rather than district health authorities. | ||||||||||
| 2 Rates calculated from less than 20 events which may affect their reliability. | ||||||||||