To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many girls under the age of 16 years (a) became pregnant and (b) gave birth in (i) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (ii) Suffolk county council area in each of the last 10 years, broken down by age. (79394)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 21 June 2006:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many girls under the age of 16 years (a) became pregnant and (b) gave birth in (i) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (ii) Suffolk county council area in each of the last 10 years, broken down by age. (79394)

Numbers of conceptions in Suffolk County for the years 1995-2004 (the most recent year for which figures are available), and numbers of maternities in Suffolk County for the years 1995-2005 are shown in the table. Figures for 2004 are provisional.

Information on conceptions is routinely published for local authorities and strategic health authorities. Figures cannot be provided by parliamentary constituency because of the risk of disclosing individual’s information, due to small differences between the parliamentary constituency and local authority boundaries.

ONS does not publish figures by single year of age below the age of 16 by either local or health authority because of the risk of disclosing individual’s information.

Maternity counts are for girls aged under 16 in each year at which either one or more live birth or stillbirth occurred.

Birth figures cannot be provided for Bury St. Edmunds parliamentary constituency for the same reason as provided for conceptions.