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Government Statistics

11. Mr. Bone: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of procedures to prevent the premature release of Government statistics. [246522]

Kevin Brennan: Responsibility for setting and assessing good practice regarding the release of official statistics (other than pre-release access to official statistics in their final form) rests with the UK Statistics Authority. The Authority has just published its Code of Practice for Statistics, on which it consulted last year. The Government will implement the Code as it applies to the statistics they produce and use, and will take seriously any breaches of the Code.

Information: Unauthorised Disclosure

13. Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what role (a) the Cabinet Secretary and (b) his Department has in investigating unauthorised disclosures of information from Government departments. [246524]

Mr. Byrne: The role of the Cabinet Office in leak investigations was provided to the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) by the Cabinet Secretary on Wednesday 11 December 2008. A copy of the memorandum was placed in the Libraries of the House.

Charities: Government Assistance

Mr. Carswell: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps the Government are taking to support charities in the economic downturn. [246362]

Kevin Brennan: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for South-West Norfolk (Christopher Fraser) and the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) to PQs 246147 and 246535.

Damian Green

Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what role the Cabinet Office played in the circumstances leading up to the recent arrest of the hon. Member for Ashford. [241588]

Mr. Byrne: The role of the Cabinet Office in leak investigations generally and in the specific investigation relating to Home Office leaks has been set out in a memorandum provided to the Public Administration Select Committee on 11 December 2008, a copy of which is available in the Libraries of the House.

14 Jan 2009 : Column 742W

Death: Cancer

Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many people (a) contracted skin cancer and (b) died from melanoma in the latest period for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [247085]

Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated January 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people (a) contracted skin cancer and (b) died from melanoma in the latest period for which information is available. (247085)

The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of cancer (incidence) are for the year 2006 while the latest figures for deaths are for the year 2007.

Table 1 below provides the number of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of skin for 2006 and the number of deaths from malignant melanoma of skin for 2007.

Table 1: Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of skin( 1) in 2006 and number of deaths from malignant melanoma of skin( 1) in 2007, persons: England
	Malignant melanoma of skin
Cases diagnosed in 2006	8,658
Number of deaths in 2007	1,710
(1) Malignant melanoma of skin is coded to C43 in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Source: Office for National Statistics

Death: Weather

Sarah Teather: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many people died from factors attributable to cold weather in (a) each London borough and (b) each English region in each of the last 10 years. [247032]

Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated January 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people died from factors attributable to cold weather in (a) each London borough and (b) each English region in each of the last 10 years. (247032)

Estimates of excess winter deaths are based on the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July). It is not possible to say whether these deaths were related to cold weather. The table attached provides the number of excess winter deaths in (a) each London Borough and (b) each government office region from 1997/98 to 2006/07 (the latest available).

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14 Jan 2009 : Column 744W

Table 1. Number of excess winter deaths( 1,2) in each London borough and government office region, 1997-98 to 2006-07
Deaths (persons)
Area	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
London boroughs
City of London	0	0	10	10	0	0	-10	0	0	10
Barking and Dagenham	40	120	200	120	90	100	90	110	60	60
Barnet	150	260	290	60	240	130	110	140	100	50
Bexley	130	170	190	140	10	150	70	150	110	120
Brent	60	150	180	70	70	70	100	90	30	40
Bromley	50	280	260	190	50	150	120	120	130	150
Camden	80	120	120	70	50	60	70	90	50	30
Croydon	130	290	320	160	190	100	100	150	130	40
Ealing	110	140	210	50	120	120	70	150	50	60
Enfield	150	280	260	40	120	180	70	150	80	60
Greenwich	60	130	190	110	60	70	70	140	20	60
Hackney	60	120	120	60	40	90	0	50	80	60
Hammersmith and Fulham	10	90	120	80	60	100	0	110	50	70
Haringey	80	120	100	50	70	110	60	60	50	30
Harrow	120	140	150	100	80	60	80	90	70	40
Havering	30	230	290	50	150	180	170	160	100	90
Hillingdon	130	130	240	110	120	100	70	150	120	70
Hounslow	80	150	180	100	110	80	60	20	130	-10
Islington	40	100	80	20	70	40	40	80	70	70
Kensington and Chelsea	40	50	80	30	40	40	50	70	30	60
Kingston upon Thames	90	120	150	70	110	40	40	90	110	80
Lambeth	60	130	180	80	30	90	70	70	110	60
Lewisham	80	170	210	120	110	140	40	150	90	80
Merton	70	120	140	90	20	60	40	90	90	100
Newham	30	140	280	110	100	100	40	100	20	50
Redbridge	80	260	220	80	140	60	80	130	100	100
Richmond upon Thames	110	170	160	20	60	100	70	100	70	60
Southwark	100	80	210	110	60	40	50	80	50	80
Sutton	90	150	150	110	80	10	50	120	130	60
Tower Hamlets	50	140	110	80	50	30	10	80	80	60
Waltham Forest	70	170	190	120	60	100	30	170	70	50
Wandsworth	120	140	180	90	110	80	60	150	140	110
Westminster	50	100	130	100	70	40	60	30	40	30
Government office regions
North East	1,550	2,370	2,680	1,550	1,530	1,260	1,190	1,460	1,080	1,510
North West	2,770	7,350	6.090	3,730	4,040	3,180	3,560	4,440	3,000	3,430
Yorkshire and the Humber	2,460	4,760	4,620	2,570	2.840	2,230	2,710	3,250	2,070	2,330
East Midlands	2,000	4,090	3,820	2,200	2,300	2,050	1,990	2,460	1,990	2,010
West Midlands	2,460	4,860	5,290	2,590	2,670	2,610	2,560	3,590	2,710	2,670
East of England	2,540	4,800	4,880	2,430	2,790	2,480	2,280	3,290	2,810	2,570
London	2,520	4,940	5,870	2,780	2,750	2,810	2,040	3,440	2,560	2,070
South East	3,210	6,710	7,680	3,150	4,140	3,670	3,310	4,590	4,680	3,030
South West	2,240	4,130	4,730	2,270	2,740	2,360	2,290	3,220	2,840	2,780
(1) The estimated number of excess winter deaths is the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July). Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. (2) Data are based on deaths occurring in each month.

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