Mesothelioma Bill [HL]
(11 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord McKenzie of Luton
“(2A) The average damages recovered by claimants in mesothelioma cases shall be determined by reference to the gross tariff, as set out in Schedule (Tariff).
(2B) The gross tariff will be up-rated annually by the general level of prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index and reviewed at least every five years.”
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, in moving Amendment 15 I shall speak also to Amendment 19. These address aspects of the levy. That subject was covered in large measure by the noble Lord in his introductory statement, so I hope that I can be brief. However, given that we have not yet seen a draft of the levy regulations, nor will we by the time the Bill leaves your Lordships’ House, we need as much clarity as possible on what they will contain.
Amendment 15 sets out a gross tariff as a schedule to the Bill. It is based on the national institute analysis that sought to determine average civil compensation awards for mesothelioma cases based on recent experience. It is set out in yearly age bands and stretches from age 40—that is, at date of diagnosis—to age 94. The tariff is intended to be a proxy for levels of compensation that would have been awarded had individual compensation assessments been made. It is expressed in gross amounts, so if payments are made at less than 100%, the relevant percentage would apply. The tariff excludes the legal cost of reimbursement. I understand that the amounts included in that gross tariff, reflected in the proposed new schedule, are not contentious and are accepted by the Government, the ABI and the Asbestos Victims Support Group campaigners and its professional advisers. However, it would be good to have the Minister’s specific confirmation of that.
The Government may resist the tariff going in a schedule to the Bill, although we would contend that that is where it belongs. An alternative approach is acceptable to us, as long as there is certainty on the gross starting tariff. The amendment also calls for the tariff to be uprated annually by reference to inflation. We have adopted the CPI measure and the Minister has already said that that is the intent. However, again, it is important to have that on the record.
The amendment further calls for the tariff to be reviewed at least every five years. Not only is this reasonable in terms of generally ensuring that the tariff is aligned with reality, but it implicitly recognises the changes that might ensue following the uprating of civil compensation claims following LASPO deliberations. It would be helpful to have confirmation from the Minister that it would be the intent to align the tariff with the outcome of any such review. I beg to move.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord and the noble Baroness for their amendments. As I understand it, their purpose is to set out the exact tariff to be used by the scheme and to require that the growth tariff would be uprated annually in line with the consumer prices index. I support the intention of the amendments, although I do not think that they are necessary. I shall explain why.
I put on the record that it is our intention to uprate the scheme payments annually in line with the CPI. If we were to put that in the Bill, we would have no flexibility to uprate by any other amount in future. For instance, we have given an undertaking to review the scheme’s operation and the rates of payment at the end of the smoothing period. Obviously I cannot pre-empt the findings of the future review, but were any review to show that a gap had developed between average civil damages and scheme payments, we would want to address that. If we were required by the Bill to uprate only in line with the CPI, we would be unable to do so.
Regarding the proposed tariff to be included in the Bill, I confirm that we have published an ad hoc analytical publication that sets out the same figures that are included in the table attached to the amendment. These are the figures that we will be using as a baseline when we calculate the percentage level of damages. If we included the table as a schedule, as the amendment proposes, we would need either annual primary legislation or a regulation-making power to make any change to the schedule. As I say, I am happy to go on record to say that the figures contained in the report that we have published will be used when we calculate the amounts that individuals will receive. We will publish in regulations the amounts that people will receive from the scheme.
I hope that I have covered these issues in adequate detail and have put the position on the record without the need for these amendments, which I understand were intended to tease out these issues. I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
I thank the Minister for his reply. It dealt satisfactorily with the purpose of the amendment, which I beg leave to withdraw.
Lord Howarth of Newport
“( ) must ensure as far as possible that the scheme administrator is unbiased as between the interests of the insurance industry and the interests of applicants to the scheme,”
Lord Howarth of Newport
My Lords, this amendment is intended to highlight the important issue of conflict of interest, which we have not sufficiently considered so far in our proceedings. The Government are proposing that a scheme intended for the benefit of mesothelioma sufferers should be run by the same insurance industry whose negligence deprived mesothelioma victims of legal redress and which for years held out against fair and decent treatment. As envisaged by the ABI, the industry would create an incorporated body, accountable to its funders in the industry through its board.
In its briefing to us, the ABI has made no mention of the possibility of competition that the Minister informed the House about earlier today. I applaud his intention to ensure that there is a competitive tender of the administration of the scheme; that is right in principle. However, it may be difficult for the noble Lord to find other tenderers that are competent to run the scheme. Let us see.
Meanwhile, the difficulty we need to keep clearly in sight is that it is in the insurers’ interest to pay 75% or even less of the average civil court settlements. It is in their interest to avoid costly procedures and negotiations of the kind the court route requires of them. Indeed, it is in their interest to determine that applicants for awards from the scheme are found to be ineligible. It is in their interest, after all, to reduce the levy.
The Bill, as drafted, and the scheme, as proposed, create an administrator and a technical committee that have pretty well plenipotentiary powers to assess eligibility, the validity of documentation and the significance of evidence. Under Clause 4(3)(b), the scheme may,
“in particular, give the scheme administrator power to decide when to impose conditions or what conditions to impose”.
That is a fairly blank cheque. In the scheme contents that we have been shown, which are to be brought in by regulation, the scheme administrator has powers to refuse altogether to make payment. We need to be well aware that there is a bias built into this system. It may be unavoidable but it is there.
The ABI has informed us that, of 4,051 ELTO searches in the year from May 2011 to April 2012, 2,354 were successful in tracing the documentation; it follows that 1,697 were unsuccessful. Yet the ABI is predicting that only 200 to 300 claimants will be found to be eligible each year. What is to happen to the other five-sixths of those whose documents could not be traced?
The powers of the administrator and technical committee are, as I have suggested, almost total. Admittedly, there is provision for reviews and appeals and, if this is to be a body created under legislation, there may be scope for judicial review, but that of course is not a desirable way to resolve these cases.
The insurance industry is going to be judge and jury in what is in its own interest. The case for using the insurance industry to administer the scheme is that it understands the business. However, I hope that the Minister will describe to the House how he intends to ensure fair play. The history of employer’s liability insurers does not inspire confidence and it is not satisfactory to design into the scheme a blatant conflict of interest. Therefore, the question is: will the oversight committee proposed in the amendment from my noble friends on the Front Bench be sufficient to ensure fair play?
My Amendment 30 would require the Secretary of State to report on the performance of the scheme and the administrator to Parliament each year. This amendment is modelled on a provision that the Government have written into the Intellectual Property Bill. It is an admirable provision. If the Minister is willing to agree that there should be an oversight committee, should it report to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State then report to Parliament on an annual basis? I hope that that will be the case. The matters on which we should look to the Secretary to State to report to Parliament include: the performance of the administrator; all the relevant data and statistics to enable us to know the performance of the scheme in detail; the number and variety of cases; the speed at which cases are processed; the pattern of tariff payments; the evolving relationship between payments under the scheme and awards made by the courts; and the scale and nature of compensation recovery unit recoveries from payments. We should also be told about what is happening in the field of research, which we debated at length this afternoon.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, we have Amendments 25 and 29 in this group and we support Amendments 17 and 30 in the name of my noble friend Lord Howarth, although there is some overlap between the two sets of amendments. I will be brief as I believe we are pushing at an open door from what the Minister told us earlier today. Amendment 25 calls for the establishment of an oversight committee to monitor, review and report to the Secretary of State on the overall arrangements touched on by this legislation. It would undertake this task in relation not only to the scheme and the technical committee but to the tracing office and the electronic information gateway. They fit together, and we know that the insurance industry sees them as an integrated package.
The idea of an oversight committee was originally prompted by concerns over the extent to which the insurance industry may be engaged in all of this, possibly as a scheme administrator—although we welcome the news announced earlier today about the open competition—and certainly on the technical committee, running the tracing office and devising the portal. An oversight committee properly constituted would provide a level of reassurance for those whom the scheme should benefit and would be a counterweight to the level of engagement of a powerful industry with clear financial interests in how it all works, as my noble friend Lord Howarth so powerfully demonstrated. That is why we believe that the oversight committee should include representatives of asbestos victims support groups and the trade unions which have supported them, with an independent chair. Effective oversight would, we suggest, help the hard-pressed DWP resources, and an annual report from the committee could be incorporated with an annual report to Parliament by the Minister.
In Committee and in meetings thereafter, the Minister has expressed support for an oversight committee. We heard it again today and I know that he has considered various options. While disappointed not to see a specific amendment from the Government today, we hope for an assurance that they will introduce an amendment when the Bill passes to the House of Commons. I was not quite sure that it was clear enough in the noble Lord’s opening statement, so I hope he will clarify matters. It would be good if that assurance spelt out at least the bare bones of what is intended.
Amendment 29 is a return to the issue of support for sufferers of other asbestos and long-latency diseases. The payment scheme in this Bill relates to those diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma. It therefore excludes other asbestos-related diseases such as asbestos-related lung cancer and asbestosis. It also includes other work-related, non-asbestos diseases such as pneumoconiosis. The DWP’s June 2013 analysis quotes the Health and Safety Executive data on industrial diseases, which has an annual estimate of sufferers of asbestos-related diseases of some 3,500—that excludes those suffering from mesothelioma—and of non-asbestos-related industrial diseases of some 4,200. Many of these will face the same problem in identifying a negligent employer or an employer liability insurer. The DWP’s June note acknowledges that many of the diseases covered do not share the same characteristics as mesothelioma, and that their severity and progression may vary, depending on the heaviness of exposure to asbestos.
It also highlights the fact that, for example, only a small proportion of asbestos-related lung cancers are compensated through government schemes, because of the range of different causes of lung cancer that mask an asbestos cause. Notwithstanding this, and perhaps somewhat strangely, in computing the effect of extending the scheme, it has been assumed in the data that the same proportion of those with diffuse mesothelioma who can access the scheme proposed by the Bill will be able to access an extended scheme, that the same level of scheme payment will be received, and that the same amount of benefit will be recovered. These are fairly broad-brush assumptions, to say the least. In resisting this amendment, the Minister will doubtless point to the costs of bringing forward an extension of the scheme. On the basis of their estimates over a 10-year period, they suggest that there will be 5,100 successful applicants for other asbestos-related diseases and 6,100 with non-asbestos work-related diseases. There will be additional levy on insurers of £478 million and £564 million respectively.
At face value, these figures are shocking. It is not so much the amounts as the suggestion that over the 10-year period some 11,200 people will miss out. By how much will depend on benefit recovery arrangements, but they could miss out to the tune of £1 billion. If the concentration were just on the other asbestos-related diseases, not expanding the scheme will deny 5,100 people, who will miss out just because an employer has gone out of business or cannot be located and a relevant insurer cannot be established.
The amendment requires the Secretary of State to bring forward proposals within a year to establish other schemes to cover these other diseases. We have been clear that we do not want the pursuit of broader coverage to hold up the scheme for diffuse mesothelioma, and there is no reason why acceptance of the amendment should cause this to happen. It is accepted that it will be difficult to graft onto the mesothelioma scheme the tariff approach, given the varying degrees of suffering that some of the other diseases entail, and that there may be convoluted issues around causation. Therefore, while continuing to acknowledge the merits of the mesothelioma scheme, we should no longer look aside from those people—many thousands on the Government’s own figures—who face terrible suffering because of the negligence or breach of statutory duty of an employer. This is all the more important where access to the state lump sum and social security support is more difficult, as it is for some.
The Minister has come thus far and we have supported and congratulated him on doing so. Indeed, he has expressed sympathy for a broader scheme. Accepting the thrust of these amendments would add to that journey, which I beg him to undertake. If he cannot, he will of course be aware that the campaigns will go on.
Lord Freud
My Lords, it would be most convenient to deal with these amendments in their original order. If I may, I will start with the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, on the scheme administrator, and then turn to the two amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, and the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, which relate to an oversight committee and future reports on further schemes. I will then turn to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, on annual performance.
Amendment 17 is intended to make certain that the body chosen to administer the scheme is able to operate in a wholly objective and unbiased manner. I know that there has been concern among noble Lords about the insurance industry’s involvement with this scheme, especially its administration. I agree that it is paramount that the administrators of a scheme that is intended to help its applicants must be able to do so in a fair way. I am confident that the necessary safeguards are in place to ensure this without the need for an amendment on the matter.
First, I remind noble Lords of the commercial procurement strategy that I spoke about earlier. The scheme administrator will be chosen through an open procurement competition that will be launched in time to meet our aim of taking the first applications in April 2014 and making payments next July. Members of the insurance industry will be allowed to tender, as will the shadow body created by the ABI. Legal specialists may also tender. The body will be chosen through this exercise according to our commercial criteria, which include being able to administer the scheme as set out by the scheme rules.
Secondly, I refer noble Lords to the scheme rules, which set out clearly every aspect of the scheme administration and specify how the administrator may or may not act. Compliance with the scheme rules will form an integral part of scheme arrangements.
Lord Howarth of Newport
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his full response to each amendment in this group. He tells us that sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure the objectivity and unbiased behaviour of the scheme administrator, and asks us to accept that the open procurement competition will be a contributor to guaranteeing that impartiality. However, it may be difficult for him to find anybody competent to run the scheme who is not in the industry, so the problem of conflict is likely to persist. I do not wish continuously to impugn the motives of people in the insurance industry, and would like to think that those who are appointed to work as administrators of the scheme will set out with the best of honourable intentions.
We are always being warned, however, that we should avoid situations of conflict of interest and, from time to time, people are vulnerable to the temptations that conflicts of interest present to them. There is a whole institutional temptation here because the insurance industry stands to gain significantly from cases not going to court and from cases not being handled generously by administrators, who will have such absolute powers of determination. I therefore remain concerned about this, although the Minister offered a little reassurance about Clause 4(3)(b) when he said that it was harmless. Certainly, on the face of it, the wording of it seems to give enormously large powers to the administrator, but I accept what he said about the purpose of that particular piece of drafting.
Moving on to the oversight committee, it is good that the Minister agrees that there should be such a committee; he made his points about getting stakeholders on to the board of ELTO and the technical committee being within ELTO, so that stakeholders would be in a position to keep an eye on the performance of those parts of the whole apparatus. He said, understandably enough, that he wants a non-legislative solution, but we will probably want to know a good deal more about the provision that he intends to propose before we can agree that it is right in principle that there should be a non-legislative solution. My noble friends may want to reserve the right to return to that, whether that is here or in another place.
As to the report on future schemes, the Minister again rejected the proposal from my noble friends, as he does not want to divert scarce resources—no doubt of time and energy, as well as money—to preparing that. He suggested that the complexities of the other asbestos-related conditions are such that they would not fit well into the mould of the scheme that we are legislating for in this Bill. I hope, however, that the Minister will continue to reflect on the fact that there are—as my noble friends explained compellingly, and rather movingly—large numbers of people who are suffering from these other conditions. At the moment they have all too little support; we know that there is a vast disparity between the lump sums that are paid under government schemes and the awards that the courts provide and the lesser payments that the scheme will provide. These people continue to be seriously disadvantaged and we cannot be happy with that.
I was pleased that the Minister was able to tell us that the success rate in tracing has been improving spectacularly, which suggests that it could always have happened if there had been the will on the part of the industry to do this. We must be pleased that it is now doing better but, equally, we must have means to keep the pressure up and to ensure that, in the future, there is not again any deterioration in the success rate of tracing and, above all, that elements of the industry do not resume the practice of conveniently losing or shredding documentation, which is the great scandal. They are getting off all too lightly in that regard.
On the annual report, the subject of Amendment 30, the Minister wanted us to accept that scrutiny and reviews are already planned and that we do not need to worry because everybody will keep an eye on it and Parliament does not need to be too bothered by it. I do not think that the annual Written Ministerial Statement that the noble Lord has promised is good enough for Parliament, even when combined with the online information that he said will be made available. He will have seen already the intensity of interest in your Lordships’ House and he will certainly see both greater intensity of interest in the House of Commons when it comes to scrutinise this Bill and a wide and deep concern across the country. I think that it is a proper responsibility of Parliament to invigilate this process, and an annual report is a convenient and practical means for Parliament to do so. Therefore, I am disappointed that the Minister has resisted that. This is a subject that I think we will wish to return to but, in the mean time, I beg leave—
Lord McKenzie of Luton
Before my noble friend withdraws the amendment, perhaps I may clarify one point with the Minister. I was slightly less reassured about the oversight committee than I expected to be, partly because it looks as though it might be a fragmented effort, given the ELTO structure. The noble Lord said that his preference was for a non-legislative solution, and we do not have a problem with that. However, will a conclusion be reached as to whether the non-legislative solution will be found by the time the alternative of a legislative solution passes in the Commons? It would be a pity if we had not concluded on this and decided in due course that we needed a legislative solution and the Bill had completed its passage.
Lord Freud
My Lords, my aim is to know where we are with the structure over this Recess. I think that I owe the noble Lord a letter at the end of the Recess setting out where we have got to on that so that he will be able to talk to his colleagues in the other place. If he thinks that a gap is developing, that is a way for me to handle that uncertainty.
Lord Howarth of Newport
In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Freud
Lord Freud
This is a minor amendment which removes an erroneous reference to Section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The appropriate transitional provision which relates to the offence in Clause 9 of this Bill is Section 154(1) of that Act.
Lord Freud
Lord Freud
The amendments in this group concern the technical committee that will be established to make decisions regarding disputes about whether an insurer provided employer’s liability insurance to a particular employer at a particular time. The amendments do two things: first, they make clearer the definition of “potential insurance claimant”—in other words, those who could be in dispute with an insurer about cover and whose disputes might come to the technical committee for a decision—and, secondly, they remove the power of the Secretary of State to expand that definition in the future.
Currently, the definition of a potential insurance claimant includes those who allege that an employer is liable for damages and an employer or anyone else who is alleged to be liable for damages. Amendment 26 removes the phrase “or anyone else”. This phrase is not deemed necessary because we are not able to identify any further parties that could come to the committee, other than those already listed.
Amendment 27 removes Clause 15(10), which gives the Secretary of State powers to make regulations to amend the definition of potential insurance claimant. This could include extending the scope of the technical committee to cases concerning other diseases or bodily injury. Amendment 32 makes a consequential amendment to Clause 17 to reflect the fact that, with the removal of Clause 15(10), there will be no regulations under Clause 15.
The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, in its report, recommended the removal of the power to amend the definition of “potential insurance claimant” unless its purposes could be more precisely specified. Having considered the points made by the DPRRC about this power, we are persuaded that these amendments are necessary. Clause 15 as it stands potentially broadens the scope of the Bill in a way that is not consistent with the focused nature of the rest of the Bill. Furthermore, as we are not able to specify the exact circumstances in which the Secretary of State might choose to expand the classes of people about to bring disputes before the technical committee, we agree that such a broad regulation-making power is inappropriate.
I hope that noble Lords can support the wish to make the Bill as robust as possible, and support the removal of unnecessary regulation-making powers. I beg to move.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, we have no difficulty in accepting these amendments. As far as Amendment 27 is concerned, we are a little unhappy to see this disappear but accept that, without broader schemes evolved and being brought forward, it does not make particular sense.
So far as Amendment 26 is concerned and the deletion of “or anyone else”, can the Minister just remind us who that was intended to cover or who the drafters originally thought ought to be covered?
Lord Freud
My Lords, I think that is the most difficult question I have had in the past three years. I simply do not know what was in the draftsman’s mind. I think it was a standard reflex to capture anything that may not have been in the list. When we had the chance to go over it in more detail, we really could not think of anything else so it became redundant. I think that is the explanation and I am deeply impressed by the question.
Lord Freud
Lord James of Blackheath
“Establishing additional schemes
The Secretary of State shall by regulation establish another scheme in relation to long-latency asbestos-related diseases in current and retired members of the Armed Forces.”
Lord James of Blackheath
My Lords, the sole purpose of this amendment is to make sure that we do not lose track of the very important but parallel issue of asbestosis that affects members of the fighting services. I remind noble Lords of the amendments made some six years ago by the former Government that were very much against the interests of former officers and servicemen, particularly in the Royal Navy. There was a very bad record of asbestos-related illness, particularly on ships such as HMS “Furious”, HMS “Albion” and, above all, the Royal Yacht “Britannia”, which was a floating death-trap.
The unfortunate consequences of the amendments made six years ago were that the amount of compensation one was entitled to was reduced very drastically; in addition, the period of claim was limited so severely that it could not possibly allow for the inevitable eventual development of the disease and the justification for a claim. Armed Forces people have been very poorly treated in this and although we are talking here of a different branch of asbestosis, I remind your Lordships that in the insurance world they would not make that distinction. Nobody ever wrote a policy for mesothelioma on its own any more than they wrote one for asbestosis without embracing the generality of it. This is an important factor that has sometimes been forgotten in this debate.
In the matter of the Armed Forces, these people have been left exposed—to a greater or lesser degree—to all the consequences we have been talking about that are associated with this disease. They are going to be somewhat perplexed when they find out that the Government have gone out of their way to pass this splendid Bill to help sufferers of a different form of asbestosis while doing nothing whatever to amend the drastic reductions made six years ago to the terms available to servicemen.
I was very grateful for a joint meeting between the Minister’s department and the MoD, from which I came away with the great expectation that there would be a thorough analysis of data of the actual exposure and the number of cases concerned, and that this would open the way for some sort of parallel accommodation to be agreed. There was no question of dipping into this Bill’s pot to pass money over but there was the suggestion of perhaps a separate pot being arrived at by the Ministry of Defence, which could help to close the gap between the have-nots of the Armed Forces and the haves who will benefit from this Bill.
The reason for this amendment is that, unfortunately, the MoD has not provided the expected data. I talked to the noble Lord, Lord West, about this matter earlier and he showed a keen interest. He was an officer on one of the ships that was greatly affected and had the responsibility of overseeing the engine room replenishment of one. He therefore regards himself as a prime candidate for the condition in time. We have not had those data and it looks as if it is the Navy that has been remiss; yet it is the Navy about which we are most concerned.
May I please send a message via the Minister to ask the Navy to stir its stumps a bit and do something about getting those data to us? We need them. The idea would then be to see what can be done to put together a programme that will not result in a Daily Mail headline such as, “Callous Government plan for the many and abandon their heroes of the seas”. We do not want that, and it would be unfair anyway. We need a commitment to do something for Armed Forces people who have had a very bad deal for the past six years. We need to do something to put it right.
I have tabled this amendment in order to keep people interested in the possibility of having that debate, which we cannot do until we know the data and what can be done. I do not wish to press this amendment tonight but I certainly wish to roll it over to Third Reading, in exactly the same wording, in the hope that by then we will have a more positive approach to how we can arrive at a solution to give some parallel improvement to the terms available to former members of the fighting services. On that basis, I urge the Minister to do whatever he can to stimulate that dialogue. I would be happy to participate in any stage of it.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord James, raised this issue with passion and commitment in Committee and, doubtless, previously. I am not sure that I understand all the detail of the proposition he is advancing and the background case but I certainly encourage him to continue with his campaign. I think that the noble Lord was seeking to advance the argument that some people are being dealt with under this Bill but that there are members of our Armed Forces who are not being dealt with on an equivalent basis. He keeps referring to asbestosis. This Bill relates to diffuse mesothelioma, which is different from asbestosis. In fact, we have just set our face against developing a scheme that has broader implications for people with asbestosis.
Lord James of Blackheath
I thank the noble Lord for that. I hope I made clear the distinction that I am looking at this matter from an insurance industry point of view; namely, that asbestosis covered everything and that six years ago we inadvertently disadvantaged the Armed Forces so severely that we have put them way below the benchmark that we are seeking in this Bill for sufferers of mesothelioma. A comparison is bound to be struck. Veterans’ groups are bound to pick it up and there will be people who are very unhappy to see this deficiency on their part.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
I am grateful to the noble Lord for that clarification, and I accept the point. If he is comparing people with diffuse mesothelioma who are not being treated on an equivalent basis, it seems that there is a case. I think that I would hang on to my point that asbestosis is different and that we have not sought to address that in this Bill.
Lord James of Blackheath
I am talking about the sufferers and the industry.
Lord Freud
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his amendment and assure him that I am sympathetic to his desire to provide support for current and retired members of the Armed Forces. As he would expect, however, I must reject the amendment.
This Bill’s remit is strictly mesothelioma, which was a point made by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie. Nevertheless, I hope that it will continue to draw into the spotlight the issues highlighted by the amendment and that the momentum from this Bill will assist my noble friend as he continues to advocate on behalf of service personnel.
I remind my noble friend of the distinctive characteristics of mesothelioma that allow for a relatively straightforward and quick scheme to be established, such as its undeniable link to asbestos exposure, the lack of co-causality with other factors such as smoking, and the very short time between diagnosis of the symptoms and death. These unique elements of diffuse mesothelioma allow us to establish a scheme that will make payments quickly and efficiently.
It is important to note, too, that the mesothelioma payment scheme proposed in the Bill addresses a market failure related to employer’s liability insurance. Armed Forces personnel are not normally covered by employer’s liability insurance due to the Government self-indemnifying. It is therefore not appropriate for insurers to be required to fund payments for individuals for whom they have never received premiums. My noble friend has already indicated that he will withdraw the amendment, and I urge him to do so.
Lord Freud
Lord Freud