Lieut.-Colonel Geoffrey Clifton-Brown:

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the practice of publishing the numbers of applications made in the courts for affiliation orders can now be recommenced and shown at the same time as the numbers of illegitimate births and orders granted.

The forthcoming volume of criminal statistics for the year 1946, like the volumes published before the war, will give the number of affiliation orders made by courts of summary jurisdiction. I will consider whether for future years information should also be included as to the number of applications for such orders. The number of illegitimate births is given in the annual Statistical Review prepared by the Registrar General.