Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 1 September 2014.
Brooks Newmark
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson dated September 2014
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Health how many women are known to have died of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in each year since 2000. (206969)
ONS holds mortality data for England and Wales based on the information provided at death registration. All conditions mentioned on the medical certificate of cause of death are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Since 2001, the ICD, Tenth Revision has been used to code deaths in which code N98.1 specifically identifies hyperstimulation of ovaries. Specific codes to identify this condition were not available in earlier revisions of the ICD.
Between 2001 and 2013 (the latest year available), two deaths have been registered in England and Wales where hyperstimulation of ovaries was recorded as the underlying cause of death (one in 2005 and one in 2006). In addition, one death was registered in 2008 which had hyperstimulation of ovaries mentioned on the death certificate, but this was not the underlying cause of death.
The number of deaths registered in England and Wales each year by sex, age and underlying cause, are published annually on the ONS website at:
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
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Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Fiona Bruce
Conservative, Congleton