§ 159. Sir I. Fraserasked the Minister of National Insurance if he will give figures to show the extent of sickness amongst industrial workers during the past summer and at present, as compared with the sickness rate in a prewar year.
§ Mr. SteeleThe only statistics in the possession of my Department are those derived from the payments of sickness benefit under the present Health Insurance scheme. The latest available figures relate to the second quarter of 1946. A comparison between these figures and the average for the corresponding quarters of the three prewar years shows an increase of about 30 per cent. in the case of men, and of about 25 per cent. in the case of unmarried women, there being no appreciable change in the case of married women.