§ Ms AthertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of evidence about the cumulative effects of hearing loss occasioned by war-time noise combined with age related hearing loss. [183610]
§ Mr. CaplinI have been asked to reply.
The current scientific understanding of noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss is that it does not get worse on removal from the noise giving rise to the injury and that, in the context of the War Pensions Scheme, hearing loss 78W due to noise and that due to subsequent effects of age are not more than additive. This is the basis on which the Department considers claims for hearing loss due to service in the armed forces.
In terms of specific assessments of the effects of hearing loss, in 1997 Baroness Hollis, the Minister then responsible for war pensions, asked the then Government Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman, to chair an independent expert review of the assessment of hearing loss in the War Pensions Scheme. Both that independent review and a further departmental review in February 1999 confirmed that the Department's approach to the assessment of hearing loss in war pensions was in line with current scientific and medical understanding. Since early 1999 emerging evidence on the matter has continued to be monitored.
The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, an independent non-governmental body which advises the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on matters relating to the Industrial Injuries Scheme, published their review of occupational deafness in November 2002 (Cm 5672). This confirmed the War Pensions Scheme approach to assessment.