§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will consider removing the right of his Department to submit decisions by medical boards on the degree of disability and future prognosis of claimants who suffer from continuing effects of industrial injuries to a medical appeals tribunal, particularly when no fresh medical evidence is being presented by his Department.
§ Mr. PrenticeNo. Medical boards, consisting mainly of doctors in general practice, assess disablement in approaching ¼ million cases a year. The discretion, vested in the Secretary of State since the beginning of the industrial injuries scheme, to refer their decisions to the more highly qualified medical appeal tribunals is necessary to ensure that the law governing assessment is correctly applied, that there is broad equality of treatment among claimants and that benefits are paid only for contingencies covered by the scheme. A decision to refer may be to a claimant's advantage 541W and is made impartially on the evidence that was before the medical board. Additional evidence is never sought for the purpose of deciding whether to make a reference.