§ 4. Brigadier-General SPEARSasked the Minister of Pensions when he will be in a position to make a statement to the House as to whether or not it is his intention to revise the final awards Regulations in view of the great hardship and injustice inflicted by these Regulations in their present form?
§ 14. Mr. F. GOULDasked the Minister of Pensions what steps are now being taken to deal with the final awards regulations; and whether we may expect an early announcement respecting the same?
Mr. ROBERTSI am glad to say that the arrangement to which I have referred in previous answers by which, with the sanction of the Treasury, I am enabled to amend errors of final awards is already in effective operation. What amendment, if any, of the Regulations is necessary will be determined by further experience of the existing procedure. There will be no avoidable delay in settling this question.
§ 13. Mr. GRAHAM WHITEasked the Minister of Pensions whether he can now make a statement regarding the position of those pension cases in which pension appeal tribunals have found that a final award should not have been made; and whether he proposes to take any action in those cases where there is a fixed rate of disablement of 6 to 14 per cent.?
Mr. ROBERTSAs already announced in the reply given to the hon. Member for Birkenhead West (Mr. Egan), on the 6th instant, instructions were issued last month which provide that in all cases in which the Assessment Tribunal has set aside a final award the officer or man concerned shall be re-examined, as soon as possible after the decision of the tribunal by a medical board, with a view to the award of any further compensation which his condition may justify. This procedure applies to all cases irrespective of the rate of assessment on which the award was based.