Epilepsy Deaths

Mr. Battle

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many sudden unexpected deaths from epilepsy there were in (a)Leeds West, (b) City of Leeds and (c) West Yorkshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [116183]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. John Battle dated 3 June 2003:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question concerning how many sudden unexpected deaths from epilepsy there were in (a) Leeds West, (b) City of Leeds and (c) West Yorkshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available. am replying in his absence. (116183)

Figures for Leeds are only readily available for Leeds Metropolitan District. These figures, and those for West Yorkshire, are given in the attached table. The total numbers of deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy are also provided as context for the numbers that are "sudden unexpected deaths".

Number of deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy¹ and among those where "sudden unexpected death in epilepsy"² was mentioned on the death certificate, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County and Leeds Metropolitan District,³ 1997 to 2001⁴
Number of deaths
	West Yorkshire		Leeds
	All	Sudden unexpected	All	Sudden unexpected
1997	30	⁵	6	—
1998	37	—	16	—
1999	35	⁵	12	—
2000	39	⁵	12	⁵
2001	48	5	8	—
¹ Cause of death selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 345 for the years 1997 to 2000, and, for the year 2001, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes G40 and G4L. The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means that data for epilepsy in this year are not comparable with data for earlier years. The introduction of ICD-10 has led to an apparent increase of 1 per cent. for males and 23 per cent. for females in the number of deaths coded to epilepsy. While the effect of the change to ICD-10 may have led to an overall increase in the number of deaths with an underlying cause of epilepsy in 2001, it is not possible to determine the effect on "sudden unexpected deaths in epilepsy".
² Deaths where "sudden unexpected death in epilepsy" or similar wording (e.g. "sudden unexplained death in epilepsy") was written on the death certificate.
³ Figures relate to deaths of usual residents of these areas.
⁴ Figures are for deaths which occurred in these years.
⁵ Fewer than 5 deaths.
-Zero deaths

Volume 406: debated on Tuesday 3 June 2003