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Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister and to the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, for their helpful remarks. Like the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, I have no intention of doing anything other than taxing the Government about the details of the scheme because the regulations are an extremely sensible continuation of the Government’s valuable work. I concur with the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, in that regard. I encourage him to keep recognising the Government’s good work, as he does. At least I take note of that, if that is any consolation to him, although I do not know whether the Government do. This annual debate is useful. The Government have inflicted an annual debate on themselves because they refuse to index the benefit, which I think is slightly daft. I understand that the department think that the benefit will peak in 2011 or 2015, or perhaps even in 2020—we do not really know that yet—and therefore it is not necessary to put it into the 1992 uprating Act to give the 5 per cent uplift, which would also have the result that this debate would not need to take place every year. From where I am sitting, it would be much more sensible for the Government to wrap this in with the other uprating order provisions. However, since we have this debate, the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, and I are perfectly entitled to make the best use of the time to apply pressure on the Government with regard to this matter. Some of the questions that I wish to pose are detailed and may involve an exchange of letters. I should also like to pursue some of the ideas that the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, has raised. The administrative pressure continues in this regard. The small dedicated unit does valuable work but I think that it comprises only about eight or 10 people to clear this work. I do not know what their target date is to clear the casework, but I fear that the administrative budget will come under pressure, as I think the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, hinted. Delays in paying some of the compensatory lump sums is of critical interest to the relevant families and claimants. I hope that we can be given further reassurance on that. The Minister did his best to put on the record the fact that he was confident that the job was being done properly and that no one was being subjected to intolerable delays of any kind. However, I would like to be given that reassurance again if he feels able to give it. The Minister was kind enough to list some of the trends and the average payments, but how is the funding of the scheme bearing up? It is still in its early days; it was introduced only 12 months or so ago. There was an understanding—certainly on my part—that reclaimed amounts would come back into the system where civil actions resulted in compensation that the benefits system sought to claim back. It may be too early to obtain any sensible data on that but noble Lords are interested in the totality of the funds coming in and the funds going out and want to know how the scheme is progressing. If the Government are able to reclaim money from payments made in civil cases, there may be more scope for encouraging the Minister in future years to look beyond the 5 per cent uprating figure and be a little more generous if more money is coming in than was originally anticipated when the scheme was put together. My next point may be more suitably dealt with in a letter than in an immediate response. Medical science and technology change with regard to the way in which these diseases are understood, treated and predicted in terms of diagnosis and prognosis. I should be very interested to know whether there is any new medical thinking on these diseases. Mesothelioma is being scrutinised to see if better treatments can be devised for it. If there is anything in the offing that the department knows about that would affect the scheme and claimants, noble Lords would like to know about it. Finally, the Minister will know that the industrial injuries disablement benefit scheme integrates into these regulations. Perhaps he can confirm one thing that has changed in the past 12 months. When we last discussed these regulations, I was pretty confident that the department was doing a full-scale review of the scheme. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, alluded to this. The consultation was launched with some fanfare in 2007; indeed, there was publication of a reprise and analysis of the extensive responses that the consultation provoked. All that was very useful and it looked as if the Government were on a path that had some momentum towards reviewing how they would deal with the future of this benefit. However, that seems to have fizzled out, because the recent White Paper said, ““Well, we think things are all right, really””. Subsequently, a Written Answer to a PQ in another place stated, ““We think that the scheme is okay””. Is that the Government’s position? Certainly the people to whom I talked who had responded to the consultation thought that the scheme was a good thing; they thought that it should not be abolished or made substantially different, but that it needed reform. One of the main reforms suggested in the consultation was that the scheme should provide more help for people to get through rehabilitation and back into work, which would seem to fit the Government’s agenda. Yet the review of the scheme seems to have hit the buffers. I may be misreading that, and the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, had some questions in that area. It would be helpful if the Minister could clarify the departmental view of the scope that there may be for the review of this important disablement benefit. Perhaps if he cannot do that today, he could do that at another time. The benefit is a weekly payment, which, as he knows, involves a qualifying eligibility requirement: you do not get the compensatory payments covered by these regulations unless you are entitled under the scheme. If there is another way of helping people who are suffering from these terrible illnesses—I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, that they are horrible and life-threatening—with an update and modernisation of the industrial injuries disablement scheme, as well as through the benefit of these welcome regulations, that would be a very good thing.