Beorn
07-30-2009, 03:05 PM
GORDON BROWN will today be accused of betraying English victims of an asbestos-related condition who will miss out on compensation available in Scotland.
Tens of thousands of future sufferers from pleural plaques – a condition that can trigger serious respiratory diseases, including mesothelioma and lung cancer – will be told they can no longer prove liability.
Only the existing 6,500 sufferers will receive “no fault” payouts – and only of up to £5,000. They will be funded by the taxpayer, rather than insurance companies.
The decision will have farreaching consequences in the North-East and other areas with a history of heavy industry, where the “ticking timebomb” of asbestos exposure will mean many more sufferers in the decades to come.
Now they will receive no damages until a serious disease develops, by which time an employer or insurance company may have disappeared – making it harder to prove liability.
To add insult to injury, compensation will still be available in Scotland where the Edinburgh Parliament will overturn a shock Law Lords ruling, made in October 2007.
Michael Clapham – who has led a campaign by 80 Labour MPs for Westminster to also change the law – said: “I think this is a betrayal.
People will feel very let down.
“There will be compensation for pleural plaques in Scotland, but not in England, where no liability will have been established if someone develops a worse condition in years to come.”
That criticism was echoed by the Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians. Alan Ritchie, its general secretary, said: “The Government’s failure to overturn the Law Lords’ 2007 judgement will be seen as a massive betrayal.”
More than 2,000 people – mostly men – died from mesothelioma across the North-East over the 25 years to 2005, according to official figures.
Among the blackspots, measured by the mortality rate (MR) where 100 is the national average, were South Tyneside (317), Hartlepool (240), Sunderland (230), Stockton (211) and Redcar and Cleveland (167). But the toll is expected to rise, peaking at as high as 2,450 deaths every year across Britain by 2015, compared to just 153 in 1968.
Among the many uses of asbestos was as insulation in ships – exposing workers during fitting out and shipbreaking – with carpenters, joiners, plumbers and heating engineers also at particular risk.
Ministers will argue today that “no more than five per cent” of pleural plaques sufferers go on to develop asbestos-related diseases – although some MPs claim the figure could be 20 per cent.
They will warn that changing the law would cost up to £28.6bn and open the floodgates to compensation for workers worried about exposure to passive smoking, or to the sun in the building industry.
Source (http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/search/4503403.Brown____betraying_English_victims___/)
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww185/BeornWulfWer/broonscottishclaimofriglr1.jpg?t=1248966301
Tens of thousands of future sufferers from pleural plaques – a condition that can trigger serious respiratory diseases, including mesothelioma and lung cancer – will be told they can no longer prove liability.
Only the existing 6,500 sufferers will receive “no fault” payouts – and only of up to £5,000. They will be funded by the taxpayer, rather than insurance companies.
The decision will have farreaching consequences in the North-East and other areas with a history of heavy industry, where the “ticking timebomb” of asbestos exposure will mean many more sufferers in the decades to come.
Now they will receive no damages until a serious disease develops, by which time an employer or insurance company may have disappeared – making it harder to prove liability.
To add insult to injury, compensation will still be available in Scotland where the Edinburgh Parliament will overturn a shock Law Lords ruling, made in October 2007.
Michael Clapham – who has led a campaign by 80 Labour MPs for Westminster to also change the law – said: “I think this is a betrayal.
People will feel very let down.
“There will be compensation for pleural plaques in Scotland, but not in England, where no liability will have been established if someone develops a worse condition in years to come.”
That criticism was echoed by the Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians. Alan Ritchie, its general secretary, said: “The Government’s failure to overturn the Law Lords’ 2007 judgement will be seen as a massive betrayal.”
More than 2,000 people – mostly men – died from mesothelioma across the North-East over the 25 years to 2005, according to official figures.
Among the blackspots, measured by the mortality rate (MR) where 100 is the national average, were South Tyneside (317), Hartlepool (240), Sunderland (230), Stockton (211) and Redcar and Cleveland (167). But the toll is expected to rise, peaking at as high as 2,450 deaths every year across Britain by 2015, compared to just 153 in 1968.
Among the many uses of asbestos was as insulation in ships – exposing workers during fitting out and shipbreaking – with carpenters, joiners, plumbers and heating engineers also at particular risk.
Ministers will argue today that “no more than five per cent” of pleural plaques sufferers go on to develop asbestos-related diseases – although some MPs claim the figure could be 20 per cent.
They will warn that changing the law would cost up to £28.6bn and open the floodgates to compensation for workers worried about exposure to passive smoking, or to the sun in the building industry.
Source (http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/search/4503403.Brown____betraying_English_victims___/)
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww185/BeornWulfWer/broonscottishclaimofriglr1.jpg?t=1248966301