To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people aged (a) under 16, (b) between 16 and 18, (c) between 19 and 25, (d) between 26 and 35, (e) between 36 and 50 and (f) over 50 years were admitted to hospital in each (i) region and (ii) primary care trust area in London due to assault by a (A) sharp and (B) blunt object in each of the last five years; and how many such people required (1) emergency care and (2) intensive care as a result of being assaulted by a (x) sharp object and (y) blunt object in each of those years. (265581)

Information has been provided on the age groupings 19 to 25 rather than 18 to 25 (in order to avoid double counting). The data have been broken down by strategic health authority (SHA) of residence and then a further breakdown of individual primary care trusts (PCTs) in London has been provided. As well as this, extra tables showing emergency admissions to hospitals have been provided, as this is the closest thing we can provide to emergency care. Hospital episode statistics datasets are not able to determine whether admissions required intensive care or not.

In 2006-07 SHAs were reconfigured, with 28 SHAs merging into 10. Due to this, data for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are based on the new configuration.

Tables showing a “Count of admissions and emergency admissions by SHA and London PCT of residences broken down by age where there is an external cause of assault by sharp object (X99) and assault by blunt object (Y00) in 2003-04 to 2007-08”, have been placed in the Library.

It should be noted that the number of admissions do not represent the number of patients as someone may have been admitted more than once.