§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total number of workers who have been certified to have died in 1979 from pneumoconiosis by a coroner's court but have been denied pension rights arising out of the pneumoconiosis medical panel doctors overriding the coroner's decision.
439W
§ Mr. PrenticeThe information is not available in the form requested. Claims for industrial death benefit are determined by independent adjudicating authorities who consider all the available evidence on the cause of death. In pneumoconiosis cases, this includes the pathologist's report on the post-mortem examination, the statutory death certificate and the opinion of the doctors of the pneumoconiosis medical panel.
In 1979, panel doctors gave an opinion on the cause of death in about 5,000 cases. Fifty-nine claims were disallowed on the ground that death was not due to pneumoconiosis in which the panels advised that the disease had not caused death, whereas, the pathologists considered death was due to the disease. In 16 other cases, claims were allowed on the advice of the panel doctors, although the pathologists had said they considered death was not due to pneumoconiosis.