Mesothelioma Bill [HL]

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy]

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on his commitment to the Bill and thank him for promoting it—I expect against considerable odds.

I understand the reasons for the severe limitations, and I believe it is important that the Bill becomes law as soon as possible. We will have the opportunity in Committee to examine some areas, which have already been raised by noble Lords, to see whether those limitations can be stretched. I am interested in trying to extend the eligibility date and the coverage, and genuinely do not understand why compensation would be less than 100%, rather than the 70% figure.

My reasons for being interested in this Bill are threefold. First, one of my sisters-in-law died of mesothelioma. She was a nurse and would push trolleys through the basement of Scunthorpe Hospital. In the 1950s and 1960s, hospital basements were probably among the most dangerous places to be. The mother of a colleague also died of mesothelioma. She did not work in a hospital but washed the overalls of someone who did. So this is about very personal tragedies.

Secondly, I became interested in this disease when I conducted my report into construction fatalities and found out how many construction workers were affected. My third reason is that, as a former trade unionist and president of the TUC, I witnessed the tireless and continuing efforts of the trade union movement over decades to claw, inch by inch, some concessions for affected workers, despite the strongest possible resistance from employers, the insurance industry and some in the legal profession. It was as recently as 1968, only 45 years ago, that the British Medical Journal suggested that mesothelioma was a primary cause of death rather than a secondary cancer. This is not an area, as my noble friend Lady Taylor said, in which we can take pride in the UK, and we know that the worst is yet to come.

I will concentrate on the administration of the proposed scheme and the potential impact of Ministry of Justice streamlining of the overall claims procedure, as it affects mesothelioma suffers. If the administration of the scheme is to be contracted out, I ask the Minister what safeguards will be written into the tender to ensure absolute independence and integrity. This would apply in particular if the insurance industry were to be the scheme administrator. The conflict of interest would be obvious, even if we were looking at an industry with a benign record. However, we are looking at one more commonly characterised by delaying tactics, spurious arguments and obfuscation. The Bill allows for the scheme administrator to,

“help a person to bring relevant proceedings (for example by conducting proceedings or by giving advice or financial help”.

Surely it would be unacceptable to allow this particular fox into the chicken run.

A comment in the departmental briefing indicated that the insurance industry,

“is currently to set up a body, at its own financial risk, that could deliver the functions of the scheme”.

If the industry satisfies the DWP’s requirements,

“we would be able to start making payments more quickly than if DWP work to establish the scheme following Royal Assent”.

That is beginning to sound like a done deal to me. I am very concerned about the implication that any other scheme administrator might be slower at paying out when we know that time is of the essence for these sufferers. Why not put it out to tender without delay? If it is a done deal, what guarantee will there be that awards will not be cash-limited? I appreciate that the department will remain responsible for overall performance, financial accountability and oversight of the scheme, but I wonder what it will mean in practice if the department does not have the resources to carry out that responsibility.

I understand that the scheme will be funded by a levy on remaining insurance companies. We do not know the total sum of money available. How can we be sure that the cost will not be met by the insurance companies making considerable savings elsewhere? I appreciate that this area is not under the direct purview of the Minister, but will he give an assurance that nothing in the MoJ’s “streamlined” procedures will be allowed to worsen access to compensation or increase the administrative burden on claimants and their families? Will he ensure that the insurance industry will not receive its payback in this area?

We should remind ourselves that, as the Minister said, it is only 14 years since the retention of information by insurance companies was introduced. Although tracing has improved, it is still unimpressive. Insurance companies should not be allowed to profit from their own incompetence. Neither should they be allowed to slide out from under the extremely efficient and effective procedures in the Royal Courts of Justice, presided over by Senior Master Whitaker, as my noble friend Lord McKenzie mentioned. Insurance companies collected the premiums that were meant to cover,

“all bodily injury and disease”.

Their record in honouring this cover is a disgrace. They consistently resisted efforts to centralise information to improve the success rate for tracing, using business confidentiality as their reason.

As I said, we do not yet know what the total cost of the new scheme will be. The impact assessment indicates the possibility that the industry might pass any extra costs on to customers, and that premiums might increase by 2.24%, although the impact assessment stated that this was unlikely. One way of preventing this would be to cash-limit the awards. I am not in favour of this and I remain concerned about a scheme that is financed and administered by the insurance industry.

On a separate matter, the impact assessment refers to an independent NIESR feasibility study, and the fact that the full report and survey findings will be published in the summer of 2013. Will there be an opportunity to benefit from the report’s findings before the Bill completes its stages in the House? I mentioned the impact assessment on a couple of occasions and make the point that it is a very substantial piece of work. Of course it contains assumptions and uncertainties, but I congratulate the department on its thoroughness.

Finally, despite my concerns and questions, I feel sure that the whole House will agree that this is a very important piece of legislation, and will be a fitting tribute to the Minister when it becomes law, as I sincerely hope it will. I look forward to the rest of the debate and to Committee.