§ Mr. Buchanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) on 5 March, why the Glasgow pneumoconiosis medical board has the highest rate of refusal in Great Britain ; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe Glasgow pneumoconiosis medical board examines a higher than average proportion of claimants to whom it has not been practicable to apply the normal procedure by which a decision on diagnosis is first given on the basis of the scrutiny of the chest radiograph by a member of another board. In addition, the proportion of claimants who appeal against such decisions is higher in Glasgow than in other centres. The proportion of cases in these two categories in which pneumoconiosis is diagnosed is likely to be low wherever the boarding examination takes place.
Figures published in the National Coal Board medical service annual report for 1977–78 on the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in 53 collieries in Great Britain in 1977, show a rate of 2.8 per cent. in the five Scottish collieries surveyed, as compared with 6.9 per cent. in the collieries as a whole. This also suggests that pneumoconiosis is not as prevalent in the area covered by the Glasgow pneumoconiosis medical panel as in other areas.