§ 4. Mr. D. GRENFELLasked the Home Secretary whether he has definitely arranged for the extension of the schedule of industrial diseases so as to include men who contract miners' phthisis while following the occupation of rock-boring in coal mines by the used of compressed-air machines; and whether he will inform the House how many cases of disability from this cause have been notified to his Department in the last four years?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSThe matter is one which will have to be dealt with by a scheme under Section 47 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925, and I have asked the Departmental Committee on Workmen's Compensation for Silicosis to advise as to the terms of a scheme. I have offered for this purpose to appoint to the Committee two representatives of the industry on each side, but have not yet received the reply of the Miners' Federation. The disease is not notifiable and no statistics are available, but its incidence, to a limited extent, in the coal mining industry has been established.