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Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

I, too, am grateful for the details given by the Minister, and I am glad to follow the informed remarks of the noble Lord who speaks for the Liberal Democrats. In the south Wales coalfield there is huge interest in these matters even today. The interest is clearly based on the experience of tens of thousands of miners who need these regulations. I pay tribute to the magnificent work done in another place by many Members of Parliament over many years to obtain the payments that are now coming forward. The noble Lord, Lord Lyell, mentioned asbestosis. It might help your Lordships if I remind the Grand Committee that, in the early 1980s, the late right honourable Lord Harold Walker had charge on the opposition Front Bench of matters relating to asbestosis. I had the privilege of working with him, and we both worked under the leadership of the noble Lord, Lord Varley. I simply make these remarks to help put these excellent regulations into context. Departments, which work for many years and months on the production of regulations such as these, may be able to have a slight historic context to work by in the future.