Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the number of (a) diagnoses of and (b) deaths from silicosis in the last five years.

No specific assessment has been made. There have been no recent discussions with industry representatives on the impact of new technologies to reduce the number of cases of silicosis. The Health and Safety Executive has produced guidance for employees to prevent lung disease caused by exposure to silica at work, which is available at the following link:

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg463.htm