I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated March 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many cases of (a) encephaly and (b) spina bifida following (i) live births and (ii) elective terminations were diagnosed in each year since 2001. (261734)
The table attached provides the number of cases of (a) anencephalus and (b) spina bifida, (i) reported to the National Congenital Anomaly System following live births, and (ii), the number of abortion notifications under Ground E of the Abortion Act 1967 associated with each of these congenital anomalies, from 2001 to 2007 (the latest year available). A termination may be carried out under Ground E where there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.
It is not possible to say how many of these abortion notifications were elective terminations.
Anencephalus Spina Bifida Live Births Abortion Notifications Live Births Abortion Notifications 2001 12 148 47 127 2002 13 137 60 98 2003 17 * 57 * 2004 12 145 58 90 2005 13 139 47 121 2006 8 166 42 106 2007 14 144 34 117 1 Anencephalus is defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), code Q00. 2 Spina Bifida is defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), code Q05. 3 Abortion notifications are on Ground E ‘there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical of mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped’. An asterisk (*) denotes that figures are not available for this year. 4 Figures are for notifications in each calendar year.