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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

Part 4 is welcome, because it will make payments to mesothelioma sufferers available within six weeks of a diagnosis. I note what my hon. Friend says and I am aware of some of the progress being made in Australia, but the Bill is also a progressive measure, in making payments available quickly to mesothelioma sufferers. In the light of the House of Lords judgment, will the Minister and the Department consider creating a register on which the names of each person who has been diagnosed and is in the queue behind that judgment are kept, as well as any future diagnoses of pleural plaques, rather than mesothelioma? We could keep on that register the names of the man or woman affected, the employer for whom they worked and the employer's liability insurers, so that should there be a worsening of the condition, we could easily get that information and pursue a claim. That would also benefit the Department, because where there is a successful civil claim, the payment that has been made under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 will be recovered, as the Minister will be aware. Keeping the register in order to facilitate claims being pursued through a civil action would therefore also allow claims to be made for the recovery of payments made under the 1979 Act. Going down that avenue would be an improvement on the current position. In the meantime, we should consider whether we can move forward on the issue, particularly in the light of what might happen in Scotland.