by Chris McLaughlin
The Government’s decision to delay yet again an announcement for compensation for sufferers of industrial pleural plaques masks a double victory for unions and campaigning MPs.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw failed to deliver on a pledge to disclose details of a compensation scheme on the last day of House of Commons business before the long summer recess, citing the need to examine new medical evidence.
But the delay meant that he backed off an announcement – set to be made in the teeth of union opposition up to the wire before Mr Straw appeared in the Commons – that would have restricted compensation to only the 6,500 existing cases.
Tens of thousands of expected future cases would have been entitled to nothing – a result the insurance industry has been keenly attempting to achieve. Fears remain that the Government may attempt to stick to this line, but construction union UCATT decided it was better to live to fight another day and have no decision rather than a bad one.
A clearer victory for UCATT came in Mr Straw’s announcement that the Government is looking at the establishment of an Employers Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB), which would work in a similar way to the existing Motor Insurance Bureau. All insurers would pay money into the scheme to cover a worker or retired worker suffering the effects of pleural plaques if the relevant insurers could not be traced, an all too frequent occurrence.
Mr Straw also announced Government funding of a National Centre for Asbestos Related Disease, a register for pleural plaques sufferers and faster payment for mesolothemia sufferers.
UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “While a further delay is frustrating it is preferable that the Government make a fully informed decision. It is imperative that the Government utilises the latest delay to fully assess the new medical evidence.
“The establishment of a new liabilities bureau would be a huge step forward and would end the lottery of compensation being reliant on whether insurers can be identified.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber welcomed the announcement of support into asbestos-related disease and the liabilities bureau but expressed concern that the Government had not reversed the earlier House of Lords ruling against compensation.
He said: “We hope that ministers will use the summer recess to ensure the law in England and Wales is brought into line with that in Scotland.”
A law was passed in Scotland earlier this year granting victims the right to sue for damages.
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