To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Mossley Hill, of 9 March, Official Report, columns 585–86, whether his Department will conduct statistical tests on the rates of stomach cancer per 100,000 population for the figures he gave; and what assessment has been made of the causes of the differences between the rates for Liverpool and Warrington district health authorities and the national mean.

I believe the hon. Member is referring to figures given in my answer to him of 15 March, at columns 233–34. There is a statistically significant difference between the rates for Liverpool, but not for Warrington, and the national average. It is a matter for health authorities in the first instance to monitor and investigate information on the incidence of disease as part of their responsibility for the planning and delivery of services.