§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can state when the new draft special rules for the china and earthenware trade, to replace those depending on Lord James's voluntary scheme, and rendered necessary by the inclusion of lead poisoning among industrial diseases for purposes of workmen's compensation, will be issued.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I propose to appoint a Departmental Committee of Inquiry with regard to the use of lead in a number of industries, including the one mentioned in the Question, and pending the Report of that Committee I do not think it would be worth while to undertake the revision of the existing special rules. No serious difficulty has arisen from the temporary co-existence of Schedule B. of those rules with Section 8 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, and none is anticipated.