HC Deb 26 March 1925 vol 182 cc644-6W
Lieut.-Colonel V. HENDERSON

asked the Minister of Pensions if he will give information to date as to the number of final awards made under Section 4 of the War Pensions Act, 1921, or made statutory under that Act; the number of appeals made in these cases; the percentage of successful appeals; the total number of cases in each year since 1921 where the final award has been set aside: the number of cases of final awards which have been referred to the regions or to headquarters for review as a result of examination by treatment boards under Circular 30 to War Pensions Committees; and the number of such cases subsequently dealt with under the dispensing warrant?

Major TRYON

The gross number of final awards declared up to the end of February is, for both officers and men, 478,098; the total number made statutorily final by Section 4 (4) of the War Pensions Act, 1921, is not known. Appeals have been made in 129,833 cases, of which up to date, 30,661 have been made against awards made statutorily final by the Act and 99,172 against awards declared final by the Ministry since the passing of the Act. Of the appeals made, the Ministry have information up to date as to the decisions given by the tribunals in 112,378 cases. In 51,090 of these, or 45.4 per cent., the appeals were disallowed (including a few cases in which the final award of the Ministry was reduced by the tribunal). In 32,685 cases, or 29 per cent., the appeal succeeded to the extent that the amount of the final award was increased. In 28,603 cases, or 25.4 per cent., the appeal was successful to the extent only that the tribunal decided that the case was not yet suitable for final award, and "set aside" the award for the time being. The number of cases "set aside" by tribunals in each of the years since 1921 is as follows:

Year. No.
1922 … 2,554
1923 … 14,897
1924 … 10,599
1925 (two months) … 553

The number of cases which have been represented by War Pensions Committees under the Circular referred to is not separately recorded from the general body of cases of the class referred to, which arise for consideration in connection with medical treatment and observation. Up to date, however, about 900 cases have been considered by the Ministry and 416 of these have been dealt with on the ground of serious error of diagnosis or prognosis by a further award under special sanction.