HC Deb 25 July 1978 vol 954 cc715-6W
Mr. Whitlock

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the cost of continuing to supply to severely deaf adolescents who are in employment special commercial hearing aids in replacement of those which were issued to them while in full-time education.

Mr. Alfred Morris

Reliable information on which to base an estimate is not available, but the cost to health authorities

Mr. Orme

The available information, relating to the number of industrial disablement pensions for pneumoconiosis current in Great Britain in each of the stated years, is given in the table below:

of replacing commercial hearing aids issued through the National Health Service since 1st April 1974, is unlikely to be less than £50,000 per annum.