You asked
I would like to make a Freedom of Information request on the following:-
Which town in the UK has the highest abortion rate according to latest available data?
Which town in the UK has the highest abortion rate of foetuses at and above 24 weeks' gestation?
Has any medical professional been prosecuted for performing abortions on foetuses at and above 24 weeks' gestation?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
National data on abortions are collected by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) under s2 of the Abortion Act 1967. While ONS receives extracts of abortion data from DHSC to enable us to calculate statistics on conceptions, we hold the data for that purpose only.
If we were to provide information on abortions to the public outside the terms of our agreement with DHSC, it would result in an actionable breach of confidence. We therefore find that s.41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is engaged and the information is exempt from disclosure. Use of this exemption requires consideration of the public interest test. We acknowledge that there is public interest in further public understanding on statistics around the topic of abortions. However, disclosure of this data could seriously damage our future ability to obtain data from DHSC and other government departments. This would in turn jeopardise our primary purpose of producing statistics to inform government policy and public good, which we would argue is not in the public interest.
However, you may be able to obtain the information you want directly from DHSC, who can be contacted via the contact form at https://contactus.dh.gov.uk/