§ 19. Mr. Prenticeasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what research is being conducted by his Department into occupational deafness, with a view to its possible prescription as an industrial disease.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterNone, Sir, directly, but I am, of course, in touch with the research work on deafness now being carried out by the Medical Research Council. The hon. Member will also be aware that my noble Friend the Minister for Science has appointed a Committee to examine the nature, sources and effects of the problem of noise.
§ Mr. PrenticeIs the Minister aware that there are already in the United States and some European countries schemes for compensation for occupational deafness? Is it not a fact that the right hon. Gentleman's Department receives claims under the Industrial Injuries Act from people who are made deaf at work and that, at the moment, those applications can succeed only if there has been an accident and that his Department has to reject 13 many claims which are in fact the result of genuine cases of deafness due to conditions at work?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI do not think comparison with European schemes helps us much, because our Industrial Injuries Act is on a basis markedly different in many respects from most Continental schemes. As the hon. Member knows, before a disease can be brought in under the Act it must comply with the provisions of Section 55, and I have no reason to believe at present that deafness does that.