HC Deb 14 February 1979 vol 962 c573W
Mr. Wigley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the evident frustration that this rule causes, he will seek to amend the legislation which requires that an applicant must have been refused four times by a pneumoconiosis medical board before he can appeal to a tribunal.

Mr. Orme

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Sowerby (Mr. Madden) on 12 December—[Vol. 960, c.137.]—to the effect that draft regulations providing for a right of appeal in pneumoconiosis and byssinosis cases where there have been two disallowances and one year has elapsed since the first of them, instead of, as at present, four disallowances and a period of two years, were being referred to the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council and to the Council on Tribunals.