HC Deb 27 March 1941 vol 370 cc693-6
33. Mr. Leslie

asked the Minister of Pensions whether he will consider taking steps for some form of compensation to be made to men invalided out of the Army after fighting in France and who had not been granted a pension on the ground that their disability was not due to military service, despite the fact that they had been passed as medically fit when enlisting?

Sir W. Womersley

The Royal Warrant already permits the grant of compensation for a disability which is not due to military service if and for so long as it is materially aggravated thereby. I am not prepared to recommend that grants should be made in other cases.

Mr. Leslie

Would the Minister not agree that it is decidedly hard lines that a man who has been passed medically fit for service and has been to the front should be denied any pension or compensation?

Sir W. Womersley

It all depends on the facts of the case. I take into careful consideration all the facts relating to illness and any question whether it could have been caused by service or negligence on the part of the military medical authorities. To go beyond that would be dangerous. In the majority of cases a widow does get a contributory pension.

Mr. Buchanan

Is the Minister aware that men have been passed A1 and sent to France, that before the war there was nothing wrong with them and that they have returned with their health impaired and have had no right of appeal? The Minister is judge, jury and hangman. Will he take steps to give a right of appeal to a neutral tribunal?

Sir W. Womersley

These are not all cases where men are passed A1 into the Army. They are a small minority of the cases. There is appeal to an independent medical specialist.

Mr. Bevan

Is it not a fact that in a case of which I sent the Minister particulars one doctor found a man medically fit while another subsequently found that he was not?

Sir W. Womersley

It has happened that men have been passed for service in category A. Afterwards, sometimes only a fortnight later, they have been found to be suffering from some disability that could only be revealed by proper examination and X-ray, and in that case it is to the benefit of the man that he should be discharged. My greatest difficulty has arisen in connection with Territorials. There have been many cases where men have never been properly examined at all. They were merely embodied when the war broken out, and it is necessary that a further examination should take place.

Mr. Bevan

Is not the Minister evading the plain issue? Cases have been sent to him of men who have been passed medically fit into the Army and who have served in France for many months, undergoing great trials, yet have had pensions refused them because they were supposed to be suffering from something they had before they joined the Army?

Sir W. Womersley

The answer to the latter part of that supplementary question is "No." It is a fact that men have been passed into the Army in Category A and have afterwards been found not to be in that category but suffering from some disability which rendered it impossible for them to carry on as soldiers. But if they have served in France, with all the stresses and strains involved, I take that into consideration before coming to a decision.

Sir Percy Harris

Will the Minister consider calling together his Advisory Committee, so that he can have the benefit of their advice, knowledge and experience?

Sir W. Womersley

This matter was fully considered by my Advisory Committee in the revision of the Royal Warrant, but it is my intention to call my Committee together as soon as I have collected not merely this type of case but many others about which there have been complaints.

Sir Irving Albery

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there are several outstanding cases of a serious character which call for immediate investigation? Will he call the Advisory Committee together at the earliest possible moment?

Sir W. Womersley

I am not aware that there are serious cases outstanding. In every case of this description which is brought to my notice I deal with it with the utmost care and sympathy, but hon. Members have been getting cases sent to them where the story has not been altogether accurate. I invite hon. Members, if they get cases, to see me, and I will show them the medical papers so that they will be able to judge for themselves. But, as I have already said, I will call together my Advisory Committee.

Captain Sir Ian Fraser

Could the Minister oblige us by letting us know when the Advisory Committee is to meet, so that if we have matters in mind, we can ask for them to be dealt with?

Sir W. Womersley

My suggestion to hon. Members who have anything which they wish to bring to my notice, with a view to my bringing it to the notice of the Advisory Committee, is that they should let me know at once.

Commander Sir Archibald Southby

In view of the fact that these men have been passed as fit for military service by doctors acting under the Government, is it not only fair that, if it is afterwards found that they are unfit for military service for any reason whatever, they should receive the benefit of the doubt and be treated as if they had been made unfit by their service to the country?

Sir W. Womersley

If my hon. and gallant Friend had to administer my job, he would find that that suggestion would not work. There are many men who are discharged from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force against their own wishes, and if they realised that unless they put in a claim for a pension they might at a subsequent date feel that they ought to have done so and that they have missed their chance, everybody discharged from the Forces would put in a claim for a pension.