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14 Jan 2004 : Column 805W—continued

Salt Depletion

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent research has been conducted by his Department on salt depletion in the human body during hot weather. [146680]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department has not conducted any research on salt depletion in the human body during hot weather. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that people should modify their normal salt consumption during hot weather conditions. It is, however, important to maintain an adequate fluid intake.

Thyroid Cancer

Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what clinical trials have been conducted to establish the effectiveness of potassium iodate tablets in minimising the effects resulting from inhalation of airborne radioactive iodine, with particular reference to prevention of thyroid cancer; and if he will make a statement. [147205]

Dr. John Reid: Stable iodine (of which potassium iodate is only one form) has been used clinically since the 1940s to protect the thyroid glands of patients (both

14 Jan 2004 : Column 806W

children and adults) being treated with radio-pharmaceuticals which contain radioactive iodine. Potassium iodate is still routinely used in this way to this day. Its efficacy at protecting against the radiation induced thyroid cancer has been known, therefore, for over 60 years. The largest population administration occurred in Poland following the Chernobyl accident where over 9 million doses were administered. No adverse effects were reported and no increase in the rate of thyroid cancer was subsequently seen, unlike in Belorus and Ukraine were stable iodine was not administered to protect the local population.

Daily Winter Reporting System

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions his daily winter reporting system has indicated that NHS trusts are experiencing winter pressures; and in how many of those instances he has authorised escalation procedures to respond. [147033]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The first full month of daily winter reporting was December. In December, there were an average of 20 National Health Service trusts (out of a total of 155 trusts with accident and emergency

14 Jan 2004 : Column 807W

departments) per working day reporting operational problems. Such operational problems include the cancellation of elective operations.

All strategic health authorities (SHAs) have developed robust winter plans, which set out escalation procedures to cope with increased seasonal demand for health services. The decision on whether a trust should put these escalation procedures into operation is not made by ministers or the Department of Health. Instead, the locally agreed escalation procedures are activated by the trusts themselves, in agreement with local primary care trusts and the SHA. Such an approach allows the local NHS to be timely in dealing with pressures and is in line with the Government policy of Shifting the Balance of Power to the local NHS. If required, the Department of Health will support a SHA in its local management of winter.

TREASURY

Birth Certificates

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many babies were born to unmarried mothers for whom no name of the father was entered on the birth certificate in each of the last 30 years, or in those years for which figures are available; what the (a) social class and (b) age of the mother at the birth of her first child was in each case; and how many subsequent births, when the name of the father was not entered on the birth certificate of the child, each mother had. [147176]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 12 January 2004]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

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Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Frank Field, dated 14 January 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your request for information on previous and subsequent births of mothers who had a birth registered without a father's name on the birth certificate (a sole registration) in each of the last 30 years. In particular you asked for information on (a) the social class and (b) the mother's age at her first live birth, and for information on how many of subsequent sole registered births the mother had. I am replying in the National Statistician's absence. (147176)

Information is readily available, from birth registration records, on sole registration births by age of mother. However under the Population (statistics) Acts 1938 and 1960, information on birth order (that is whether a birth is a first birth, second birth etc.) is not collected at birth registration for women who are not married to the father of the child. Table 1, attached, provides information on the number of sole registrations by age of mother in each of the last 30 years (1973–2002).

Similarly only limited information is readily available by social class from birth registration records. Social class of mother and father first became available separately from 1986. Only 10 per cent. of births are coded for social class and for around two thirds of sole registrations there is insufficient occupation data to assign a social class. Table 2 provides a summary of the readily available information on social class for sole registered births, 1986 to 2001. In 2001 the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification was introduced, replacing social class, and from 2002 data are not available by social class.

To provide information on age at first live birth and on any subsequent sole registration requires successive birth records to be linked together. This can only be done using the ONS Longitudinal Study, a one per cent. sample of the population in which, since 1971, census records and vital events have been linked together. Extracting this information cannot be done in the time available to answer this Parliamentary Question. I will write to you again in two weeks to let you know whether the information available from this study is of sufficient quality to answer your question. You should note that, as there is currently only 30 years of birth registration records in the study, only a small proportion of women in the sample have a complete birth history that allows identification of sole registrations. It is therefore very unlikely that the last part of your question (on the number of subsequent sole registered births) can yet be answered reliably.

Table 1 Live births outside marriage registered by mother alone (sole registrations), by mother's age 1973–2002. England and Wales

	Age of mother
	All ages	<20	20–24	25–29	30–34	35–39	40+	Mean age	Percentage(31)
1973	31,168	14,408	9,774	3,972	1,825	887	302	22.0	4.6
1974	29,398	13,986	9,144	3,709	1,506	808	245	21.8	4.6
1975	27,986	13,480	8,503	3,503	1,499	750	251	21.8	4.6
1976	26,359	12,631	7,981	3,406	1,416	705	220	21.9	4.5
1977	26,064	12,201	8,066	3,335	1,557	684	221	22.0	4.6
1978	27,835	12,778	8,849	3,558	1,717	718	215	22.0	4.7
1979	31,118	13,712	10,127	4,175	2,026	824	254	22.2	4.9
1980	33,204	14,032	11,340	4,516	2,176	869	271	22.3	5.1
1981	33,758	14,047	11,589	4,700	2,290	878	254	22.4	5.3
1982	36,453	14,453	12,991	5,383	2,298	1,086	242	22.5	5.8
1983	38,417	14,351	14,093	5,819	2,651	1,225	278	22.7	6.1
1984	40,593	14,928	14,876	6,383	2,824	1,269	313	22.8	6.4
1985	44,458	15,872	16,440	7,358	3,146	1,364	278	22.9	6.8
1986	47,822	16,379	17,922	8,246	3,479	1,479	317	23.0	7.2
1987	50,474	16,787	18,944	8,909	3,875	1,609	350	23.1	7.4
1988	53,944	17,098	20,350	10,185	4,320	1,642	349	23.3	7.8
1989	53,537	16,142	20,179	10,399	4,600	1,781	436	23.5	7.8
1990	54,831	16,191	20,135	11,140	5,006	1,933	426	23.7	7.8
1991	54,131	15,249	19,671	11,396	5,398	1,973	444	23.9	7.7
1992	51,472	13,457	18,370	11,421	5,642	2,133	449	24.2	7.5
1993	50,242	12,535	17,476	11,418	5,967	2,336	510	24.5	7.5
1994	49,030	12,007	16,408	11,390	6,204	2,501	520	24.7	7.4
1995	47,916	11,880	15,626	10,864	6,485	2,529	532	24.8	7.4
1996	51,016	12,946	16,245	11,350	6,978	2,891	606	24.8	7.9
1997	50,582	13,223	15,590	11,015	6,997	3,050	707	24.8	7.9
1998	49,960	13,830	14,838	10,672	6,768	3,151	701	24.8	7.9
1999	48,203	13,194	14,477	9,936	6,615	3,221	760	24.9	7.8
2000	45,773	12,459	13,919	9,213	6,116	3,309	757	24.9	7.6
2001	43,744	11,669	13,583	8,582	5,875	3,213	822	25.0	7.4
2002	43,129	11,229	13,599	8,133	5,949	3,373	846	25.1	7.2

⁽³¹⁾ All sole registrations as a percentage of all births.

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Table 2 Live births outside marriage registered by mother alone, by mother's social class 1986–2001. England and WalesNumbers (thousands) and percentage of all births

	Social class of mother(32)
	Non manual			Manual
	I	II	IIIN	IIIM	IV	V	Others (33)	Total
Number
1986	0.1	1.9	5.4	1.7	4.3	0.3	34.0	47.8
1987	0.1	2.2	5.7	1.9	4.8	0.4	35.3	50.5
1988	0.1	2.5	6.1	2.3	5.5	0.5	37.0	53.9
1989	0.1	2.8	6.5	2.5	5.7	0.5	35.5	53.5
1990	0.2	2.8	6.8	2.6	5.6	0.5	36.4	54.8
1991	0.1	3.1	6.6	2.4	4.7	0.9	36.4	54.1
1992	0.1	3.1	6.0	2.3	4.3	0.7	35.0	51.5
1993	0.1	2.8	6.1	2.2	4.0	0.8	34.2	50.2
1994	0.1	3.1	5.1	2.3	4.3	0.6	33.6	49.0
1995	0.2	2.7	6.1	2.3	4.6	0.7	31.4	47.9
1996	0.2	3.2	6.1	2.3	4.8	0.9	33.7	51.0
1997	0.2	3.4	6.1	2.4	5.2	0.9	32.4	50.6
1998	0.2	3.4	6.1	2.6	5.5	0.8	31.4	50.0
1999	0.2	3.5	5.8	2.2	5.2	0.8	30.5	48.2
2000	0.2	3.5	5.5	2.0	4.3	0.6	29.7	45.8
2001	0.2	3.2	5.4	1.8	4.6	0.5	28.0	43.7
	Percentage of all livebirths
1986	1.4	3.0	6.3	9.2	15.0	11.1	7.4	7.2
1987	1.3	2.8	5.5	8.8	13.8	12.0	8.3	7.4
1988	1.0	2.9	5.0	8.6	13.4	12.0	9.1	7.8
1989	1.2	2.9	5.2	8.9	13.2	11.9	9.6	7.8
1990	1.5	2.6	4.9	8.3	12.0	11.0	9.9	7.8
1991	1.0	2.8	4.7	7.5	10.6	13.1	10.5	7.7
1992	1.0	2.7	4.2	6.9	9.6	9.7	10.2	7.5
1993	1.0	2.4	4.4	7.1	8.9	9.8	10.5	7.5
1994	0.7	2.6	3.6	7.6	9.3	7.9	11.0	7.4
1995	1.6	2.3	4.1	7.1	9.2	8.9	11.5	7.4
1996	1.0	2.5	4.1	7.0	8.8	11.3	12.5	7.9
1997	1.4	2.7	4.4	7.8	9.6	12.2	13.1	7.9
1998	0.9	2.5	4.5	8.0	10.5	10.8	12.7	7.9
1999	1.1	2.6	4.3	7.0	10.0	11.9	12.8	7.8
2000	0.9	2.6	4.4	6.2	8.9	9.8	12.7	7.6
2001	1.1	2.3	4.2	6.2	9.6	9.1	12.1	7.4

⁽³²⁾ Social class classifications are: non-manual; I professional; II managerial and technical; IIIN skilled occupations (non-manual); manual; IIIM skilled occupations (manual); IV partly skilled occupations; V unskilled occupations; other.

⁽³³⁾ Includes unemployed, armed forces, students and inadequately described occupations.

Note:

Mothers occupation was not recorded before 1986.

Based on a 10 per cent. sample of births.

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