HC Deb 15 July 1981 vol 8 c400W
Mr. Spearing

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pending the introduction of regulations under the Industrial Diseases (Notification) Act 1981, he will take steps to ensure that any person refused benefit by a pneumoconiosis medical panel will, in the event of death, be the subject of a post-mortem.

Mr. Rossi

Deaths are not always notified to the Department. Where they are, it is often after the burial or cremation. It would therefore not be practicable for us to notify coroners, who alone are responsible, in England and Wales, for arranging post-mortem examinations, of the deaths of all those found by pneumoconiosis medical panels not to be suffering from pneumoconiosis.