HC Deb 21 January 1980 vol 977 cc52-3W
Mr. Carter-Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the provisional perinatal and infant mortality rates for the first nine months of 1979.

Sir George Young

Provisional figures for the first nine months of 1979 are given in the following table. For comparative purposes the table also includes figures for the first nine months of each year 1976 to 1978 which have been calculated on a similar provisional basis, together with the corresponding final figures after all adjustments have been made.

industries as compared with the incidence in the population as a whole;

(2) if he will study the criteria for identifying industrial diseases with the aim of bringing into benefit those who suffer from diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema, where the incidence level is significantly higher among those with employment history in certain industries such as mining, if the subsequent sufferers have worked for a given number of years in the relevant industry.

Mr. Prentice

I regret that information is not available in the form requested. Even where epidemiological study suggests that workers in a particular occupation may suffer from a higher than average incidence of a common respiratory disease like chronic bronchitis or emphysema, the evidence remains inconclusive as regards causation and the effects of long-term exposure to dust. In order for any such study to form an acceptable basis on which a disease could be considered for prescription as an industrial disease, the incidence of its disabling effects among a particular group of workers would have to be exceptionally higher than among the general working population—and there would have to be some way of discounting the effects of non-occupational factors. The present state of medical knowledge does not enable a case of bronchitis or emphysema which is due to a person's employment to be distinguished clinically from one which is not and, consequently, these diseases do not satisfy the statutory conditions for prescription. These, as the hon. Member knows, are that the disease in question must be a risk of a person's occupation, and not a risk shared by the population in general, and that, in particular cases, the connection with employment must be capable of being established or presumed with reasonable certainty. My right hon. Friend has no plans to change these conditions, which are essential if we are to continue to justify the payment of preferential benefits under an industrial injuries scheme.

Mr. Gwilym Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has had the opportunity to study the report of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council review of prescribed industrial diseases; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Prentice

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on 13 December 1979.—[Vol. 975, c.748–9.]