§ Mr. Ogdenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give an estimate of the extent to which new techniques in the manufacture of cigarettes, developed voluntarily by the tobacco industry over the last decade, have contributed to the reduction in cancer death rates revealed in the Survey issued by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys "Death Surveyance England and Wales 1968/1974".
§ Mr. MoyleThe survey to which my hon. Friend refers does not reveal a reduction but a rise in the overall death rate from cancer. The death rate from lung cancer, the form most closely associated with smoking, also rose during the period. There was, however, some falling off in the rate for men under 65. There is good reason to think that this fall reflects a change in the pattern of consumption over the last decade towards cigarette brands with lower tar and nicotine yields.