To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of working miners were diagnosed as suffering from lung disease in each of the years (a) 1959, (b) 1961, (c) 1966, (d) 1971, (e) 1976, (f) 1981, (g) 1986 and (h) 1988; and what was the average incidence in the country as a whole.

Information about numbers of working miners with lung disease or incidence of lung disease in the population as a whole is not collected centrally. The annual report of the Health and Safety Commission in its tables of cases of occupational diseases awarded benefit includes figures on occupational lung diseases. A copy of the report is in the Library.