Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) diagnoses of and (b) deaths from silicosis there have been in each of the last five years.

Data on the diagnoses of, and deaths due to, silicosis is collected by the Health and Safety Executive and the Office for National Statistics. ‘Silicosis and coal workers’ pneumoconiosis statistics in Great Britain, contains the latest data of the estimated number of new cases and the number of recorded deaths

2016: 16 diagnoses and 11 deaths.

2017: 12 diagnoses and 8 deaths.

2018: 24 diagnoses and 11 deaths.

2019: 27 diagnoses and 12 deaths.

2020: 17 diagnoses and 10 deaths

The number of cases for 2020 is likely to have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. There are typically between 10 and 20 annual deaths in recent years, with an average of 12 per year over the last 10 years.