asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of skin cancer from moles occurred in England and Wales in the last year for which there are figures.

In 1970, the latest year for which complete figures are available, there were 16,192 new cases of skin cancer registered in England and Wales, including 1,082 new cases of malignant melanoma of skin. From the information collected it is not possible to distinguish between those cases of malignant melanoma which arose from benign pigmented moles and those cases which arose de novo.