asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to list illness caused from exposure to trichlorethylene fumes at work as an injury under the terms of the industrial injury benefit regulations.

Personal injury caused by accidental exposure to trichlorethylene fumes can already attract benefit under the industrial injuries scheme. Similarly, benefit is payable when the fumes cause an attack of a disease which is already prescribed, such as dermatitis.The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, the independent body which advises my right hon. Friend on the operation of the scheme, published a report, "Industrial Diseases: a Review of the Schedule and the Question of Individual Proof' (Cmnd. 8393) in October 1981. In paragraph 42 it recommended that a full investigation of the effects of the halogen derivatives of aliphatic hydrocarbons, of which, I understand, trichlorethylene is one, should be undertaken. I further understand that it is the council's intention to undertake the investigation as soon as its work load permits.