§ Mrs. Bainasked the Secretary of State for Employment when he expects ratification of the International Labour Office recommendations of June 1974 concerning the prevention of occupational cancer; and, in particular, when he expects the Health and Safety Executive to publish lists of known and suspected occupational carcinogens.
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§ Mr. John GrantI am advised by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that proposals for regulations to control the hazards to work people are currently being drafted. When the regulations are made, I anticipate that Her Majesty's Government will be in a position to ratify the ILO convention, but as the Commission is bound to carry out extensive consultations before submitting its proposals to me, it is too early to say when the regulations will be made.
I am also advised that it is proposed that these regulations will include lists of those known and suspected occupational carcinogens to which the regulations will apply. The Health and Safety Executive publishes annually as Guidance Note EH15 the current list of threshold limit values together with lists of some known and suspected carcinogens as prepared by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.