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Hearing Loss (Coal Industry)

It would be appropriate for the Government, as a good employer, to write to everyone. The Watson Burton case highlights the problem. The firm has been disciplined by the Law Society, but that ruling was kept private and confidential. It came to light only when it was leaked into the public domain, despite the fact that it affected the Government’s determination whether Watson Burton should be entitled to do hearing loss claims, as I believe it does, or claims for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or vibration white finger—or even consumer complaints for redress to the Law Society. I hope that the Minister will insist on making judgments public on all firms of solicitors in which his Department has a direct financial relationship. Everyone taking a cut has a knock-on effect. The same model has been used for textile workers. However, it is worse for them, as cases are dropped, with less good employers being prepared to negotiate before they get to court. There is a strange correlation, in that hundreds of cases are dropped by solicitors the moment that employers are about to go through the costly legal process. The document that I have here may explain some of that—I will give the Minister a copy afterwards. It is about an offshore insurance company and its relationship with one of the companies dealing with hearing loss, which does other work with the Government. The document goes through the distribution of the gross premium that would in theory apply to hearing loss cases in the mining industry—I do not know whether it actually does, because it is a generic document. A £1,400 premium is levied for a conditional fee arrangement. That is then split into £550 for the insurer, £500 into what appears to be an offshore trust account, £150 into another account and £200 into a fourth account. Those figures are documented in great detail in relation to an Isle of Man offshore insurer that deals with hearing loss claims, and I suspect may deal with claims in relation to the mining industry as well as the textile industry. I will leave the Minister to inform the House about that at a later stage if it impacts on his responsibilities. Clearly, something is awry. The Minister claims in one of his answers that the issue of insurance indemnity is a matter for claimants. I suggest that it is a matter for the Government as well as claimants. People in the textile industry could have gone through unions, such as the Community union, at no cost or risk to themselves. Instead, they went down another route—that is a separate issue for a different Department about access to justice, but it impacts on the Minister’s Department. In relation to mining, the insurance indemnity issue should be of concern to the Minister. A constituent who has had deductions, like many others, has been told that he should have £50,000 in insurance indemnity, in essence to meet the Government’s costs if he loses in court. I have looked at his insurance policy and he has only £25,000 of indemnity. There are countless identical cases. That is an issue for employers, but is also an issue for my constituent in terms of access to justice and for the Government as an employer. The issue of VAT is simple. I have here a series of written answers from the Minister. We are told that all hearing loss claims from the Union of Democratic Mineworkers were submitted by the UDM, not by Vendside. However, it appears from another set of answers that VAT has been paid on all the claims. If that is the case, around £1 million of taxpayers’ money has been wrongly paid in VAT. Unions cannot levy VAT in such cases. Limited liability companies can, but the claims referred to in four written answers were put in by the UDM, so I trust that the Minister will confirm whether VAT has been paid and immediately take action with Customs and Excise to claw back what I estimate to be £800,000 to £1 million of taxpayers’ money wrongly paid out to the UDM. My final point relates to minutes that I have obtained under the freedom of information legislation, having failed to obtain the information through parliamentary questions. It is a note of a meeting between the UDM and the Department. In the response to my request, the document is described as the only minutes before the claims handling agreements from 1999 were settled. I have copies here for hon. Members. Two paragraphs are particularly interesting. The first says:"““The UDM have been accepting ““defecting”” claimants who had initially been registered with solicitors such as—””." The name has been deleted, and I am sure that hon. Members would like to know which solicitor that is. The second says:"““The UDM will administer both VWF and COAD claims for anyone, from anywhere, and do not charge the claimant anything for the service”” ." We have it on the record—these are official minutes—but that has not been stated before. Indeed, there appears to have been some defence of charging by the UDM, yet in the one meeting between the DTI and the UDM before the claims handling agreement was signed with the UDM, it is specifically stated in the minutes that the union will not charge. I suspect that this may be useful in forthcoming legal action against the UDM. There is then a paragraph that has been blanked out. As this relates sequentially to the question of how the UDM are operating, I suggest that it is in the public interest that the paragraph be made public, so that people can see precisely what the arrangements were between the UDM and the DTI at that time. The energy liabilities committee is identified in the document. It has delegated authority to make a decision. No one I have spoken to has heard of that committee, and I would like the Minister to clarify who sat on that committee, what delegated responsibilities it had and during what years or months it sat. I want to ask the Minister about people who have not received money for hearing loss claims dealt with by his Department over some years when the Department has conceded the principle that there is a claim to be made. Is his Department choosing to keep people in contact with the progress of their claim? There appear to be cases in which my constituents have not been informed of progress for the past two years. Will he methodically keep claimants in touch with their claims in cases in which they will certainly receive compensation, although the amount may be in dispute? Claims in 2000 or 1999—I have looked at loads of them—were settled in three months, from the claim being lodged until final payment. Settlements are now taking five years, which seems to be a long time. Will the Minister condemn the practice of industrial deafness and hearing loss claims being handled by telephone? I have found that all cases were dealt with by telephone. Does he agree that there needs to be an urgent policy statement by the Law Society on that practice, as it is clearly a nonsense and brings solicitors into disrepute. Does the Minister agree that if the Government allow a claims handler such as the UDM to deal with claims, there have to be consumer rights equivalent to those for dealing with complaints about solicitors through the Law Society? Indeed, why are claims handlers putting in claims, and will he release the range of costs given to different solicitors in relation to the agreements over hearing loss, so that we can see the maximum and the minimum? I have asked questions on VAT, Melex and Walker and Co. Finally, will the Minister give access to claimants’ files where there is a consumer complaint? If there is a complaint and a solicitor is involved, there is the possibility, using the Law Society’s regulatory powers, to access the file so that we can see what has happened and the claimant can proceed with their complaint for better or worse. That seems appropriate, and from my experience it is a good system that works. The Law Society could do with ratcheting up its action against solicitors who mess it around, but generally the system works. The potential to use such a system is not there for any hearing loss claim put in by the UDM. When I have requested a file or answers from the UDM on behalf of a constituent, there has been no response hitherto other than a refusal. Will the Minister, as a good employer, give my constituents and others who have a consumer dispute the right to access the employer file so that they can take their complaint—against the UDM rather than the Government—to a further stage?