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Mesothelioma Lump Sum Payments (Conditions and Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2011

Yes; it is a combination of both Acts. The recoveries picture is also improving. In 2008-09, it was £5.3 million; in the following year, 2009-10, it was £16.1 million—which, as a percentage, is 38 per cent; and in the year to January 2011, it was £12.4 million. We are estimating, next year, to get recoveries of £20.7 million. So recoveries are currently running at roughly one-third of the payments. Both the noble Lords, Lord McKenzie and Lord German, were interested in the relationship between the sufferers’ and the dependants’ rate. As they both mentioned, historically, that has been lower. The gap was closed by £5,000 and because of the age factor in many cases, the dependants’ rate can be the same as the sufferers’ rate, and that might not be a particularly valid argument in people’s eyes. At the moment, all I am empowered to say is that raising those levels by CPI is what we have decided we can do. Currently, we are not looking at any acceleration of that gap. I should perhaps emphasise that the department is currently engaging very actively with customer groups to try to ensure that claims are made before death. That maximises the rate at which payments are made at the sufferers’ rate rather than the dependants’ rate. The noble Lord, Lord Jones, brought a historical perspective to the subject. One of the horrific things about mesothelioma is that a single fibre can trigger the disease; he talked about snowballs made with blue asbestos. That is almost overkill, but as we see, and as the noble Lord, Lord Boswell, pointed out, people can also get this disease without knowing where they have got it from. It could be contracted from air conditioning even when they had not been in work. I suspect it is the most dangerous thing that we have. There were other questions on the regulations for small businesses. In practice, the regulations ensure that anyone suffering from mesothelioma can get compensation, so there is not a problem with employment. On the matter of public versus private bodies, raised by my noble friend Lord German, I do not have the figures. We are trying to improve the tracing, but I shall write to interested Peers with that figure when I get it. The noble Lord, Lord Boswell, asked about the profile of suffering. We expect it to peak in 2015 but, thereafter, we are expecting a gradual decline in the numbers. From earlier estimates, we might see a slight pushing back of the rates but the shape of the curve has not changed dramatically. The most difficult questions, slightly wider than these regulations, concern what we do with the tracing and with the bureau. The ABI’s ELTO database will begin to operate from this April, which is a positive step. The court case, as the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, pointed out, is a real issue. The Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in October and said that insurance policies should be interpreted on actual policy wordings. That has thrown an important level of uncertainty into what we do about tracing and the bureau because if we do not know what the actual wording was, it creates an extra problem. The judgment has been appealed to the Supreme Court and for obvious reasons it is quite difficult to do anything absolute until we know where we are. This area is part of my portfolio of responsibility; I am taking very seriously the idea of an insurance bureau or something to find out how we can get compensation for people for whom the records are no longer there. I know there has been a relatively long gap since the public consultation that closed in May 2010. I assure the Committee that I have been in very active talks with various interested parties. I am pursing some strategies, and hope to be able to achieve an appropriate outcome and bring the proposals forward to the House in due course. Sometimes it is better to get a result than to do things in a hurry. That is what is happening here. I can only give a personal assurance that I am taking this very seriously. I think I have dealt with virtually all the questions. There is just the public-private split to deal with. The Government recognise that these two schemes perform a very important role and that it is vital that the value of these payments is maintained. I am pleased to confirm the Government’s commitment to review the level of these payments on an annual basis and, where necessary, to increase the payment. I am sure that noble Lords are in full agreement with these sentiments. Indeed, they have expressed that. I therefore commend the uprating of the payment scales and ask for approval to implement them. Motion agreed.