§ MR. JOHN WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of a miner, Ralph Harrison, of Stoke-upon-Trent, who claimed at the local county court compensation under The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, on the ground that he was suffering from a disease called miners' nystagmus; whether this disease has been defined and scheduled as a trade disease by the Home Department under Clause 8 of the Workmen's Compensation Act; and what action, if any, he proposes to take in the matter.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.)My hon. friend has been good enough to send me a newspaper report of this case from which it appears that the proceedings were taken, not under the provisions of Section 8 which relate to industrial diseases, but under the other provisions of the Act relating to accidents; that the County Court Judge held that the case was not one of an accident, but advised the applicant's solicitor to consider his client's position in regard to Section 8. The provisions of that section were extended to miners' nystagmus by my order of May last, and, if Mr. Harrison was disabled by the disease, it was clearly under Section 8 that his claim should have been made.