Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the Industry Injury Advice Council's guidance that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease can only be diagnosed for miners who have worked for more than 20 years in an underground environment.

The Secretary of State is advised by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) which is a non-departmental public body made up of independent experts, representatives of employers and employees on matters relating to the Industrial Injuries Scheme.

The Council’s primary role is to make recommendations about which diseases should be included in the list of diseases covered by the Industrial Injuries Scheme and the prescription criteria for those diseases.

The legal framework underpinning the Industrial Injuries Scheme makes it clear that compensation should not be paid for a disease unless a link between a particular occupation and the disease can be established or presumed with reasonable certainty. A link is presumed where there is evidence that, on the balance of probabilities, work in the prescribed job or occupational exposure doubles the risk of developing the disease.

The Council’s recommendations around Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are that to establish a presumed link between occupation and disease, a miner would have to work for a minimum of 20 years underground to have sufficient exposure to coal dust. This recommendation was accepted when the disease was added to the scheme and was reflected in the prescription criteria.