My Lords, we have Amendments 25 and 29 in this group and we support Amendments 17 and 30 in the name of my noble friend Lord Howarth, although there is some overlap between the two sets of amendments. I will be brief as I believe we are pushing at an open door from what the Minister told us earlier today. Amendment 25 calls for the establishment of an oversight committee to monitor, review and report to the Secretary of State on the overall arrangements touched on by this legislation. It would undertake this task in relation not only to the scheme and the technical committee but to the tracing office and the electronic information gateway. They fit together, and we know that the insurance industry sees them as an integrated package.
The idea of an oversight committee was originally prompted by concerns over the extent to which the insurance industry may be engaged in all of this, possibly as a scheme administrator—although we welcome the news announced earlier today about the open competition—and certainly on the technical committee, running the tracing office and devising the portal. An oversight committee properly constituted would provide a level of reassurance for those whom the scheme should benefit and would be a counterweight to the level of engagement of a powerful industry with clear financial interests in how it all works, as my noble friend Lord Howarth so powerfully demonstrated. That is why we believe that the oversight committee should include representatives of asbestos victims support groups and the trade unions which have supported them, with an independent chair. Effective oversight would, we suggest, help the hard-pressed DWP resources,
and an annual report from the committee could be incorporated with an annual report to Parliament by the Minister.
In Committee and in meetings thereafter, the Minister has expressed support for an oversight committee. We heard it again today and I know that he has considered various options. While disappointed not to see a specific amendment from the Government today, we hope for an assurance that they will introduce an amendment when the Bill passes to the House of Commons. I was not quite sure that it was clear enough in the noble Lord’s opening statement, so I hope he will clarify matters. It would be good if that assurance spelt out at least the bare bones of what is intended.
Amendment 29 is a return to the issue of support for sufferers of other asbestos and long-latency diseases. The payment scheme in this Bill relates to those diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma. It therefore excludes other asbestos-related diseases such as asbestos-related lung cancer and asbestosis. It also includes other work-related, non-asbestos diseases such as pneumoconiosis. The DWP’s June 2013 analysis quotes the Health and Safety Executive data on industrial diseases, which has an annual estimate of sufferers of asbestos-related diseases of some 3,500—that excludes those suffering from mesothelioma—and of non-asbestos-related industrial diseases of some 4,200. Many of these will face the same problem in identifying a negligent employer or an employer liability insurer. The DWP’s June note acknowledges that many of the diseases covered do not share the same characteristics as mesothelioma, and that their severity and progression may vary, depending on the heaviness of exposure to asbestos.
It also highlights the fact that, for example, only a small proportion of asbestos-related lung cancers are compensated through government schemes, because of the range of different causes of lung cancer that mask an asbestos cause. Notwithstanding this, and perhaps somewhat strangely, in computing the effect of extending the scheme, it has been assumed in the data that the same proportion of those with diffuse mesothelioma who can access the scheme proposed by the Bill will be able to access an extended scheme, that the same level of scheme payment will be received, and that the same amount of benefit will be recovered. These are fairly broad-brush assumptions, to say the least. In resisting this amendment, the Minister will doubtless point to the costs of bringing forward an extension of the scheme. On the basis of their estimates over a 10-year period, they suggest that there will be 5,100 successful applicants for other asbestos-related diseases and 6,100 with non-asbestos work-related diseases. There will be additional levy on insurers of £478 million and £564 million respectively.
At face value, these figures are shocking. It is not so much the amounts as the suggestion that over the 10-year period some 11,200 people will miss out. By how much will depend on benefit recovery arrangements, but they could miss out to the tune of £1 billion. If the concentration were just on the other asbestos-related diseases, not expanding the scheme will deny 5,100 people, who will miss out just because an employer has gone out of business or cannot be located and a relevant insurer cannot be established.
The amendment requires the Secretary of State to bring forward proposals within a year to establish other schemes to cover these other diseases. We have been clear that we do not want the pursuit of broader coverage to hold up the scheme for diffuse mesothelioma, and there is no reason why acceptance of the amendment should cause this to happen. It is accepted that it will be difficult to graft onto the mesothelioma scheme the tariff approach, given the varying degrees of suffering that some of the other diseases entail, and that there may be convoluted issues around causation. Therefore, while continuing to acknowledge the merits of the mesothelioma scheme, we should no longer look aside from those people—many thousands on the Government’s own figures—who face terrible suffering because of the negligence or breach of statutory duty of an employer. This is all the more important where access to the state lump sum and social security support is more difficult, as it is for some.
The Minister has come thus far and we have supported and congratulated him on doing so. Indeed, he has expressed sympathy for a broader scheme. Accepting the thrust of these amendments would add to that journey, which I beg him to undertake. If he cannot, he will of course be aware that the campaigns will go on.