Workers’ Memorial Day

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, we are very supportive of the report by Professor Löfstedt. He made the point in the report that legislation,

“can contribute to the confusion, through its overall structure, a lack of clarity, or apparent duplication in some areas”.

That is why we are driving through reforms designed to make the system easy to understand, easy to administer and easy to enforce.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the cruellest industrial diseases is the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma, which can strike up to 40 years after exposure and has thus far claimed the lives of 30,000 workers? Is not one of the best things that the Government can do to support such workers is to respond positively to the all-party calls made in both Houses for mesothelioma victims not to have to face surrendering up to 25 per cent of their much-needed compensation to pay legal costs—compensation which they need in facing the last nine months to one year of their lives?

[Lord Freud]

I am spending considerable time on mesothelioma currently and I hope to sort out the real problem, which is the large number of people suffering from the illness who are getting no compensation at all because they cannot trace who was insuring them. I hope to see some real progress in this area—looking at the whole area of mesothelioma, both those who have been traced and those who are untraced—and to report back on that in the not too distant future, certainly before the summer.