§ Sir J. Rodgersasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) when he expects the Medical Research Council to report upon the need for an Institute of Hearing Research, consequent upon Section 24 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970;
(2) what research he considers should be undertaken within the sphere of deafness, which falls outside the scope of the Medical Research Council.
§ Sir K. JosephI would refer my hon. Friend to my reply to the hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Alfred Morris) on 25th May.—[Vol. 857, c. 208.] The Medical Research Council has not recommended the establishment of a centralised institute, but it has recommended instead the establishment of an overall mechanism to co-ordinate and improve research into deafness. This will include the setting up of working groups to foster research over the whole field of deafness. My Department will be represented on these working groups. The main strategy for research in this field must evolve from the systematic examination of all the problems by the working groups, but this will not preclude the commissioning and support of individual projects, in the meantime.