§ Mr. Butcherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many employees left his Department, for whatever reason, in 1977–78 and 1978–79.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinA total of 13,950 non-industrial civil servants of all grades and classes left my Department's employment in the year ending 31 March 1978 and 15,718 left in the year ending 31
Panel Total number of Pneumoconiosis Medical Boards considering disablement benefit claims Number of cases not diagnosed Proportion not diagnosed (percentage) Cardiff … … … 587 478 81 Glasgow … … … 219 192 88 London … … … 168 131 78 Manchester … … … 571 414 73 Newcastle … … … 327 196 60 Sheffield … … … 660 435 66 Stoke … … … 259 174 67 Swansea … … … 334 228 68 All Panels … … 3,125 2,248 72 I have no plans to arrange for investigations to be carried out concerning the cause of death of each person refused benefit. I am satisfied 'with the present arrangements, under which, in England and Wales, deaths known or suspected to have been caused by pneumoconiosis are reported to the coroner, who is responsible for determining the cause of death for registration purposes. The coroner normally calls for a post-mortem examination and the pathologist who carries it out makes the thoracic organs available to the local Pneumoconiosis Medical Panel who make their own independent examination.