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Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) Regulations 2012

Perhaps I can start by thanking all noble Lords who have participated in this brief debate for the sensitive way in which they have done it. As we have discussed, we are talking about some very terrible diseases and these things need to be approached in this way. A large number of questions have been asked. Let me see how many of them I can tackle now. If I cannot, I hope noble Lords will forgive me if I write afterwards. My noble friend Lord Avebury pointed out that there was no statutory obligation to maintain the level of payments and asked what the Government's position was. I think the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, also referred to that. The Government have no plans to make any changes to these two schemes. We review them regularly to ensure they remain well targeted and we will continue to consider uprating as appropriate. My noble friend asked what is being done to support people who need to trace employers' liability insurance. I appreciate that the Government's response to the consultation is taking longer to publish than many had hoped. However, the issues raised are complex and we remain in active discussions with all the stakeholders to make sure we get this right. We are still carefully considering all the issues and we will bring forward our proposals in due course. My noble friend asked whether there was a long-term estimate of the cost over what he described as the ““long tail””. We have not estimated the cost to the Government of these two schemes over the long tail. If I can find anything out from my noble friend, I will write to him, but I am not aware that we have made estimates. He asked about the possibility of extending the 1979 Act where diseases cannot be traced back to employers. I have to inform the Committee that there are no plans to extend the coverage of the 1979 Act to those whose disease was not covered by their employment. The 2008 scheme covers those people who contracted mesothelioma outside work, but mesothelioma is a special case because of the very short life expectancy of sufferers. My noble friend referred to what can be done to make it easier to trace insurers specifically. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, referred to that as well. The Employers' Liability Tracing Office has replaced the previous, voluntary, employers' liability code of practice tracing service, which was in place from 1999 and helped around 20,000 claimants to trace their employers' liability insurer to pursue a claim. The ELTO service has been introduced by the insurance industry to make it easier to search for employers' liability policies using a central database containing all new and renewed employers' liability insurance policies from April 2011, policies from before that date that have new claims made against them, and policies that were identified through the previous tracing service. The noble Lord, Lord Wigley, asked whether the schemes should be enlarged to encompass diseases not covered by the 1979 scheme. We will listen to any evidence and views about other diseases and jobs that interested parties think should be covered by the 1979 scheme. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked about the position on addressing the difference between the sufferers' and dependants' rates. The Government think it is right that available resources are targeted principally on sufferers of the disease. However, the Government also recognise the plight of dependants and that suffering is not limited only to first-hand sufferers. Two years ago, dependants' amounts were increased by up to £5,000, which meant that for some dependants there is now no difference between the amounts paid. We continue to review these schemes regularly to ensure that they remain well targeted.