WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION (PNEUMOCONIOSIS) (Hansard, 8 May 1951)

§ Mr. Leather (Somerset, North)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to allow compensation to be paid in respect of persons who acquired pneumoconiosis as a result of their employment prior to the fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and who were excluded from the then Workmen's Compensation Acts, or regulations made under those Acts, because of time limits contained in them. This is a very modest Bill which is designed to take care of only one very small part of what I know well to be a much larger picture. The larger picture is under negotiation at the present time. I have had long discussions with the hon. Member for Wigan (Mr. R. Williams) about that, and I have been able to agree with him that what I am doing in this small Bill will in no way prejudice the wider negotiations but will, I hope, strengthen and assist them.

The subject of compensating this small group of unfortunate individuals was raised by me in the House last March and in an Adjournment debate on 7th February, when I received the agreement of hon. Members on all sides of the House and of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Insurance about the justice of this cause and the need for something to be done. To review the position very briefly for the House, in the old Workmen's Compensation Acts from 1924 to 1944 time limits were imposed so that if a man was found to be suffering from pneumoconiosis, or silicosis, as it was then known, he was entitled to compensation only if he had served in the pits within the last five years. Originally the period was one year but it was gradually lengthened to a maximum of five years.

That was in accordance with the views of medical science at that time, but owing to the great developments in modern X-ray technique and the wider knowledge about the subject the doctors are now clear that a five-year time limit was unfair because the disease is so long in its progression that it can be even 15 or 20 years before the symptoms become so clear that it can be diagnosed. I have a number of cases in my constituency. In particular there is one of a man who left the pits 20 years ago when he was told that he was suffering from 1763 chronic asthma. He has earned his living as a labourer in a mining village. A short time ago he simply fell down in a spasm and now he is told by his doctor that he cannot do any work at all and that if he does any manual work he will kill himself. He is not entitled to any compensation whatever because of the length of time he has been out of the pits. My small Bill is designed purely to allow the Minister to make a scheme at her discretion to deal with these unfortunate cases.

In the Adjournment debate I was assured by the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Dr. Stross), who is an expert in these matters, that the number of people who come under this Bill is a mere 3,000, and this is something that happened a long time ago. At that rate the total cost of my Bill, which is not a charge on public funds, will be at the maximum £375,000, because no more men will qualify for its provisions and, as these men are in advanced years, the figure will get smaller year after year and eventually disappear.

That is a very small sum to take care of a very grave injustice and to bring happiness and a little ray of hope into the lives of the few thousand unhappy 1764 men who have been left behind, not because of any fault of this House or any Government, but because medical science has only recently discovered the truth about their disease. Without any prejudice to the wider negotiations which the hon. Member for Wigan and his friends are carrying on, I most sincerely trust that the spirit of the House today will accord with the spirit of the Adjournment debate and that the House will grant me permission to bring in the Bill.