§ Mr. Jon Owen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ill-health retirement pensions were awarded to NHS staff incapacitated by chronic fatigue syndrome in each of the last five years; and how many of these awards were made within two years of the disease being diagnosed for each of the last five years. [38575]
§ Mr. SackvilleResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the NHS Pensions Agency under its chief executive Mr. A. F. Cowan. I have asked him to reply to the hon. Member.
Letter from A. F. Cowan to Mr. Jon Owen Jones, dated 31 October 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions it falls within my area of responsibility.
The information is not available in the format requested, because the Agency did not maintain separate records about CFS applications before 15 August 1994. Since then the Agency has 202W approved 19 cases as meeting our criteria for permanent incapacity. Of these, 11 awards were made within 2 years of the first diagnosis of CFS.