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Compensation Bill [Lords]

I think I have to pour a little rain on the parade, particularly in relation to clause 1. It is a pity we did not get to clause 1 on Report, as the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) said. Despite what the Minister says, in my view it does create a new defence that companies will exploit, particularly in relation to accidents at work, because by definition, anyone who is at work should be, and probably is, performing a desirable activity. Therefore, their position will be weakened as a result of clause 1. I agree with the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) that it changes the law but, in my view it changes it for the worse, not the better. On Second Reading I said that the clause stank, and I do not think that the smell has got any better in the debates we have had on it since then. It is a serious weakening of the rights of people who are injured, to the benefit of the big insurance companies. I welcome the approach the Minister has adopted to mesothelioma claims. The Government have moved with commendable speed and vigour to come up with new clause 13. It is a pity that she could not go a little further and look at some of the outstanding issues around asbestos, but no doubt we will return to those debates. I welcome part 2. I started campaigning on the issue of claims handlers when they were invented in the mid-1980s. My first meeting with the Minister’s predecessor in the Department in 1997 was on the need to regulate claims handlers, so I am pleased that the Government have caught up with that important need. However, some of the debates on the issue have been a little intemperate. There has been a risk of some of the babies being thrown out with the bathwater, particularly when it comes to trade union schemes.