Compensation Bill [Lords]

I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for introducing the new clause, which will restore fairness where there was unfairness following the Barker decision on 3 May. Put succinctly, it would say that where a person develops mesothelioma as a result of being subject to a risk, the person who exposed them to the risk is liable severally and jointly. That is how it should be. As the law stood, enormous unfairness was created, and the Minister explained how it could impact to reduce damages. For example, a widow who might have been able to trace only two of her husband’s 10 employers would have received just 20 per cent. of the damages. Clearly, that was unfair. There will be a very large number of such cases, as there are 2,000 diagnoses a year. The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) referred to costs running to perhaps £30 billion. Looking to the future, however, means that there can be some certainty about the bills that the insurance industry, as well as Government, will face, and some preparation can be made. We know that the number of claims will be significant. It has been suggested that over 50 years there could be more than 180,000, because people have been exposed to asbestos since the 1950s. I think it fair to say that no employer could argue that he or she was not aware of the effects of asbestos from 1965 onwards. Clearly we must deal with the issue, and I believe that my hon. Friend the Minister has tackled it very fairly. In summing up the debate, my hon. Friend may tell us whether people will still be able to claim under the Pneumoconiosis Etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 once the position before 3 May has been restored. The Government made it possible for them to do so at the time of the Fairchild case. People were queuing up behind that case, waiting to get their own cases into court. Given the seriousness of the disease from which they were suffering, the then Secretary of State introduced the potential for them to claim under the Act. The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire said that my hon. Friend the Minister was thinking kindly. The Labour Government at that time was much more compassionate than, for instance, earlier Tory Governments. One example is the Tory Government’s refusal in the early 1990s to implement a scheme for miners, although it would have saved the taxpayer an enormous amount of money.