Table 1

National confidential enquiries (in chronological order by start date)

	Topic (reference)	Title	Country	Year started	Mean annual no of cases reviewed
1	Maternal mortality3	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths	England and Wales (UK since 1985)	1952–	98
2	Maternal mortality7	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Mortality	Australia	1964–	22
3	Maternal mortality8	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths	Scotland	1965–1985	21
4	Maternal mortality9	Confidential Enquiries on Maternal Deaths	Austria	1975–1998	7
5	Surgical complications10	Confidential Enquiry into Laparoscopy	UK	1976–1977	1818
6	Perinatal mortality11	Confidential Enquiry into Perinatal and Infant Deaths	France	19808	NK
7	Maternal mortality12	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths	Netherlands	1983–	27
8	Maternal mortality13	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Mortality	Bahrain	1987–2004	4
9	Surgical mortality14 (and medical mortality)	National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome & Death)	England, Wales and Northern Ireland	1988–2002 (2002–)	1415
10	Pain during labour15	Confidential Enquiry into the Relief of Pain in Labour	UK	1990	NK
11	Cardiac catheter complications16	Confidential Enquiry into Cardiac Catheter Complications	UK	1990–1999	174
12	Maternal mortality17	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths	Japan	1991–1992	230
13	Perinatal mortality2	Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy	England, Wales, Northern Ireland	1992–	6571
14	Respiratory mortality5	Scottish Confidential Inquiry into Asthma Deaths	Scotland	1994–1996	32
15	Respiratory mortality18	Confidential Inquiry into Asthma Deaths	Wales	1994–1996	42
16	Surgical mortality6	Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality	Scotland	1995–	310
17	Respiratory mortality19	National Confidential Enquiry into community acquired pneumonia deaths in young adults in England and Wales	England and Wales	1995–1996	27
18	Maternal mortality20	Confidential Inquiry into Maternal Deaths	France	1996–	98
19	Perinatal mortality21	Confidential Enquiry into Deaths due to Prematurity	Wales	1996	49
20	Suicide and homicide4	National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide & Homicide by People with Mental Illness	UK	1996	2200 (suicide), 70 (homicide)
21	Anaesthetic mortality22	National Confidential Inquiry of Anaesthesia-Related Deaths	France	1999	NK
22	Epilepsy mortality27	National Sentinel Clinical Audit of Epilepsy-Related Death	UK	1999–2000	439
23	Heroin addiction treatment mortality23	National Confidential Enquiry into Methadone-Related Deaths	Scotland	2001	77
24	Maternal morbidity25	Scottish Confidential Audit of Severe Maternal Morbidity	Scotland	2003–	270
25	Maternal morbidity24	Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Morbidity	Netherlands	2004–2006	39
26	Maternal and Perinatal mortality26	Perinatal and Maternal Mortality	New Zealand	2006–	1078 (perinatal), 14 (maternal)
27	Anaesthetic complications28	National Confidential Acute Pain Critical Incident Audit	UK	2006–2007	84

NK, not known.