§ 37. Mr. R. McNEILLasked the Minister of Munitions if he is aware that there have been cases of deaths of employés in Woolwich Arsenal suspected by relatives to have been caused by accident or by contact with poisonous substances used in the course of employment, but which are stated in the certificates of death to have been due to natural causes; if he will say how many deaths have been caused in the Arsenal in the last twelve months by accident, and how many have been caused or accelerated by the nature of their employment; whether inquests are held in the case of all deaths of employés in munition factories; and, if not, whether he will give instructions that inquests shall be so held for the future; and if he will take care that all death certificates in such cases shall state precisely the nature of the disease causing death?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYSince the beginning of June, 1916, twenty-one employés of all departments of the Royal Arsenal have died as the result of injuries received in the course of their employment, while the deaths of three others were certified to have been caused or accelerated by scheduled industrial disease. There is no departure from the ordinary administration of the law with regard to the holding of inquests in the case of deaths of employés in munition factories, and responsibility for the contents of the death certificate rests with the medical officers who sign them.