§ Mr. Flanneryasked the Secretary of State for Employment what figures he has to indicate what improvements industry has made regarding industrial deafness.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThere are no figures available which reliably show trends in industrial deafness. However, the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission and I are confident that the noise awareness campaign launched by the chairman and by my predecessor in October 1983 and the noise enforcement initiative launched by the director-general of the Health and Safety Executive in January 1984 are beginning to change the attitudes of designers, manufacturers, employers and workers towards the need to ensure effective protection of hearing against noise. The Health and Safety Executive is monitoring the effect of the enforcement initiative.