HC Deb 22 July 1986 vol 102 c203W
Mr. Bright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many of those on the blind register in England and Wales have suffered from glaucoma.

Mr. Newton

Diagnostic information about people included on local authorities' registers of blind people is not held centrally. Information is, however, collected about the causes of blindness amongst people certified as blind for the first time. It is estimated that out of the persons certified as blind in England in 1980–81, the latest date for which information is available, some 14 per cent.—that is, about 1,600 persons—had the cause of their blindness certified as glaucoma alone or glaucoma with other conditions.