WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION (SILICOSIS) BILL. (Hansard, 17 July 1918)

§ VISCOUNT SANDHURST

My Lords, I move that the House resolve itself into Committee. I promised on this Motion to give my noble and learned friend Lord Buckmaster an explanation on two points. My noble and learned friend is not here, but I feel bound to carry out the undertaking. The first point was whether this matter could not be dealt with under the industrial diseases provisions of the existing Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906. I explained the reasons partially last night. The main reasons are the slow growth of the disease, and the difficulty of diagnosis. It takes so long for the disease to develop. A man may work in the industry for twenty years or more before he becomes incapacitated, and it is considered that it would be unfair to throw the whole burden of the compensation upon the man's last employer, for under the existing Act you can only put the liability on the man's last employer and any other employers who employed him in the same occupation within the twelve months preceding his incapacity. Special arrangements, therefore, are deemed necessary to spread the liability fairly over all the employers, and this can best be done by having a general compensation fund to which all employers are required to contribute.

Further, as the disease comes on very slowly and the man can go on working for a long time after it first begins to affect him, there would be a danger of some men losing their employment when they 978 began to show symptoms of the disease in order that the payment of compensation might be avoided. This danger was recognised by the Industrial Diseases Committee which reported in 1907, and which considered the question of the extension of the existing Act to this disease (among others) shortly before the Act of 1906 was passed. The difficulties of diagnosis make it necessary to have a much more elaborate system of medical supervision and examination than is provided for in the Workmen's Compensation Act, and these arrangements I explained yesterday. In view of these and other considerations, it is considered desirable to deal with each of the industries liable to the disease separately by means of the special schemes which I explained on Second Reading.

The second point I understood was, "What would happen, if the Fund was depleted, in regard to compensation for the man?" The reply is that as long as the industry remains solvent the fund will be solvent too. The scheme will require the employers to make such contributions as are necessary in order to keep the fund solvent, and, as I mentioned yesterday, it is hoped by careful medical examinations and by exercising the power of suspension gradually to eliminate the disease from the industry, and the charge for compensation therefore will be heaviest in the earliest years when we are dealing with the cases which have been accumulated in the past.

Lord Buckmaster was apprehensive lest the Bill should take away or impair rights which a diseased workman might have under the existing Compensation Act. A workman suffering from this disease would have no right under the existing Act until the Act had been extended by Order of the Home Secretary to this disease. As I explained last night, it was decided not to recommend that it should be so extended. I think that these are the answers to the questions asked. Of course, it would have been easy to do it by Order if such a means had been adequate.