To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he has any plans to change the rule whereby claimants for industrial deafness benefit have to prove that over a 10-year-period they were employed in occupations involving continuous noise.

Advice to the Department on occupational deafness is provided by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. The council has not recommended a change in the rule regarding 10 years' work in a prescribed occupation and we have no plans for such a change.