§ Lord AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
What information they have about the estimation of age by means of X-rays of the skull, hip, knees, thighs, wrists and hands respectively; and whether they will state the number of examinations of each kind carried out on applicants for entry certificates at Dacca in the calendar year 1978.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSFurther investigations of this question are being made but at present Her Majesty's Government information is that approximate estimates of age, within certain limits, can be made from radiological appearance of bones. TheX-ray appearance of the skull, hip, knees, thighs, wrists and hands at various ages are given in standard radiological reference books, for example, Text Book of Radiology, edited by David Sutton—Churchill Livingstone 1975. Her Majesty's Government are however aware that radiological assessments of age cannot be made with precision and posts overseas dealing with entry clearance applications are instructed that such age estimates should never be used in isolation. No statistics are available of the numbers of X-rays taken in 1978 for age assessment purposes in Dacca and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost, but the High Commission estimate that age estimates were sought in only a small minority of applications for settlement.