To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many sets of (i) twins, (ii) triplets, (iii) quadruplets, (iv) quintuplets and (v) sextuplets were born in England and Wales in each year since 1980; what was the total number of maternities in England and Wales in each year; and how many multiple births of each type in each year were conceived as a result of (a) in-vitro fertilisation, (b) gamete inter-fallopian transfer and (c) other forms of assisted conception.
The information is shown in the table (England and Wales):
Information on the number of multiple births attributed to assisted reproduction is not available. However some information on multiple pregnancies is published in the first annual report of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and in earlier reports of the interim licensing authority, copies of which are available in the Library.