§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, following the marked increase in cancer recently reported in the United States of America, she will publish the latest available figures for the United Kingdom; and to what extent there is a connection with fall-out nuclear test explosions in earlier years.
§ Dr. Owen135,791 people died from cancer in the United Kingdom in 1973, the latest year for which figures are available. For a general indication of trends in mortality from cancer I would refer my hon. Friend to the recently published Office of Population Censuses and Surveys' study "Cancer Mortality England and Wales 1911–1970". Many factors, such as, for example, changing cigarette smoking habits and variations in the age structure of the population, are known to affect the rates of incidence of cancer, and I am not aware of any evidence establishing a causal relationship between the increases which have occurred in the United Kingdom and fall-out from nuclear test explosions.