To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 24 February 2009, Official Report, column 634W, on childbirth, what use his Department has made of the figures on survival to age one of babies born in England and Wales by gestation weeks produced by the Office for National Statistics in its research into (a) premature babies and (b) neonatal deaths. (263578)

The Department funds but does not directly undertake research concerned with premature birth and neonatal death. We expect the researchers we support to be aware and make appropriate use of vital statistics such as those published by the Office for National Statistics.