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Africa (Debt Cancellation)

Tom Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which countries in Africa have had their debts cancelled in each of the last three years. [200943]

Mr. Timms: Since September 2003, seven countries (Guyana, Nicaragua, Niger, Ethiopia, Senegal, Ghana, Madagascar) have reached completion point in the HIPC initiative. All of these countries are now receiving irrevocable debt relief, taking the total number of post-completion point countries to 15 (March 2003—Benin, Mali; June 2002—Mauritania; April 2002—Burkina Faso; November 2001—Tanzania; September 2001—Mozambique; June 2001—Bolivia; May 2000—Uganda).

A further 12 countries are at decision point and are receiving interim debt relief (July 2003—Dem. Rep. of Congo; March 2002—Sierra Leone; May 2001—Chad; December 2000—Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Zambia; October 2000—Cameroon; June 2000—Honduras).

However many countries are still having to chose between servicing their debt and investing in health, education, infrastructure and other areas necessary to
 
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allow them to attain the Millennium Development Goals. That is why the UK is proposing that we match bilateral debt relief of up to 100 per cent. with multilateral debt relief of up to 100 per cent. The UK will provide its share, approximately 10 per cent., of multilateral debt owed by eligible countries to the International Development Association and African Development Bank, and will continue to call on others to join us in this initiative.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the value of revenue from taxation of alcohol and alcoholic products was in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [199611]

John Healey: Excise duty receipts for alcoholic products are included in the HM Customs and Excise 'Bulletins', for Spirits, Wine, Beer and Cider, which can be found on a HM Customs and Excise website address at:

<http://www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=statbulltwo>.

The estimated Value Added Tax (VAT) receipts for alcohol products for the financial year 2003–04 are not available, as information on VAT for included products is not routinely collected.

Childbirths

Martin Linton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many children have been born to mothers resident in each constituency in the UK since 1 September 2002. [199495]

Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
 
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Letter from Karen Dunnell to Mr. Martin Linton, dated 30 November 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the number of children born to mothers resident in each constituency of the UK since 1st September 2002. I am replying in his absence. (199495)

I am placing information on the number of live births by parliamentary constituency in the House of Commons library.

Cold-related Deaths

Mr. Challen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many winter cold related deaths have been recorded in each year since 1997, broken down by country and region in the UK; and how many of these were attributed to hypothermia. [199698]

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

Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Colin Challen, dated 30 November 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many winter cold-related deaths have been recorded in each year since 1997, broken down by country and region in the UK; and how many of these were attributed to hypothermia. I am replying in his absence. (199698)

Numbers of cold-related deaths are not available, as cold is not recorded as a cause of death in itself. ONS does however publish annual excess winter death figures. These are the excess number of deaths each winter compared to the average during other months of the year. These figures are not routinely calculated for the United Kingdom but results for England and Wales and Government Office Regions in England have been published for winters from 1991/1992 to 2003/2004. This report, "Excess Winter Mortality—By Age Group and Region" can be found on the National Statistics website at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7089

For the period 1997 to 2003 (the latest year for which data are currently available) the annual total number of deaths where hypothermia was mentioned on the death certificate are presented in the attached table.

Deaths with a mention of hypothermia⁽¹⁾ on the death certificate, for the United Kingdom and constituent countries and Government Office Regions in England⁽²⁾1997 to 2003⁽³⁾

Country/Government Office Region	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
United Kingdom	439	422	403	373	336	259	236
England	343	326	305	298	244	176	176
North East	11	18	8	15	8	10	5
North West	34	36	38	39	31	23	17
Yorkshire and The Humber	29	39	30	23	29	19	20
East Midlands	21	26	41	26	20	13	16
West Midlands	41	48	49	45	32	26	23
East of England	57	42	44	48	35	19	23
London	37	33	28	32	18	16	20
South East	59	54	42	49	39	31	33
South West	54	30	25	21	32	19	19
Wales	14	26	20	14	16	99
Scotland	60	48	66	49	60	61	43
Northern Ireland	22	22	12	12	16	14	8

⁽¹⁾ Deaths with a mention of hypothermia defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code N991.6 for the years 1997 to 2000 and, for the years 2001 to 2003, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code T68.
⁽²⁾ Deaths of usual residents for these areas.
⁽³⁾ Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar year for England and Wales and deaths registered in each calendar year for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
⁽⁴⁾

Brian Cotter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many excess winter deaths were recorded within (a) the South West Government office region, (b) the North Somerset local authority area and (c) the Weston-Super-Mare constituency in each of the last five years. [199764]

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

Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Brian Cotter, dated 30 November 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many excess winter deaths were recorded within (a) the South West Government Office Region, (b) the North Somerset local authority area and (c) the Weston-Super-Mare constituency in each of the last five years. I am replying in his absence. (199764)

The figures requested are presented in the table below from 1998/1999 to 2002/2003, the last winter for which figures are available for local authorities and parliamentary constituencies, and for which final figures have been published for Government Office Regions. For 2003/2004 a provisional figure of 2,300 excess winter deaths has been published for the South West Government Office Region. Figures are not yet available for smaller areas.

Excess winter deaths⁽⁴⁾ for winters 1998–99 to 2002–03 Excess winter deaths⁽⁵⁾

Winter	South West Government Office Region	North Somerset local authority	Weston-Super-Mare parliamentary constituency
1998–99	4,130	160	100
1999–2000	4,730	140	40
2000–01	2,270	130	50
2001–02	2,740	60	60
2002–03	2,360	80	50

⁽⁴⁾ Excess winter deaths are defined by the Office for National Statistics as the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the four preceding months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July).
⁽⁵⁾ Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.

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