PENSIONS APPEAL TRIBUNALS BILL. (Hansard, 27 July 1943)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SIMON)

My Lords, I rise to move the Second Reading of the Pensions Appeal Tribunals Bill. As your Lordships know, from the early days of the war there has been a system of pensions payable to applicants in respect of injuries arising out of the war in the course of national service. The system, which is provided for in the Royal Warrant, covers members of the Naval, Military and Air Forces. Pensions have also been provided to cover injuries arising out of the war to merchant seamen, pilots, and so forth, and also in respect of injuries to Civil Defence volunteers and other civilians who sustain war injuries.

All these different pension schemes are administered by the Minister of Pensions. His decision may take the form that an individual is, or is not, entitled to a pension, having regard to the cause and circumstances of his injury. Such case are called decisions as to entitlement Where an individual is found entitled to a pension, the amount of the award in many cases is fixed by means of an interim assessment of the degree of the injury, and this measure of the injury may be varied from time to time by the Ministry of Pensions when it is found that the 767 pensioner's condition itself varies. There is one feature of the pension scheme in this war which is to be particularly noted in reference to the present Bill. Up to now there has been no appeal from the Minister's decision. The present Bill, as its title indicates, provides for pensions appeal tribunals. The reason why pensions appeal tribunals have not been provided for hitherto in this war is found in the difficulty of constituting such tribunals satisfactorily. Such appeal tribunal, for example, must include a medical expert, and the supply of doctors for such purposes is very limited. The staff of the Pensions Ministry has to be very substantially enlarged both by the addition of medical personnel and otherwise in order to work a system of appeals. The Government have always intended to set up appeal tribunals when it was thought possible to do so and the Government have now decided that the time has come when this effort must be made. That is the purpose and effect of the present Bill. There are to be a number of pensions appeal tribunals operating in various parts of the country. This is necessary in order to save expense and to avoid inconvenience. At first the number of pensions appeal tribunals is likely to be nine—one in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland, and the rest in England and Wales.

The duty is cast upon the Lord Chancellor to select the personnel for these tribunals. Each tribunal will consist of three members. One will be a lawyer (either a barrister or solicitor or an advocate in Scotland of at least seven years' standing) who will preside. That is the first member. Then there will be a duly qualified medical practitioner of not less than seven years' standing. That will be the second member. The third member's qualifications, as explained in the Schedule to this Bill, will vary according to the kind of case which the particular tribunal is dealing with—a retired or demobilized officer, if the claim is in respect of an officer in the Fighting Services; a discharged or demobilized man from the Services if the claim is in respect of a member other than an officer; a past or present member of the British Mercantile Marine if the claim is in respect of a mariner or pilot, etc.; a past or present member of the Civil Defence organization if the claim is in respect of 768 injury sustained while on war service by the Civil Defence Volunteer; and a person other than a member of His Majesty's Naval, Military or Air Forces if the claim is in respect of a war injury to an ordinary civilian—for example, an injury inflicted on a citizen by an air attack of the enemy. I must by no means omit to add that in these categories "man" includes "woman," or rather that when the claim is in respect of injury to a woman, the third member of the tribunal will be of the female sex. Such somewhat complicated is the task of nomination which Parliament proposes to confer on the Lord Chancellor in England, on the Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, and the Lord Chief Justice in Northern Ireland.

The appeals which may come before the pensions appeal tribunals will either be on the issue of entitlement where the Minister of Pensions has decided that the applicant is not entitled to a pension, or on the issue of the amount of the pension where an interim award has been made as long as two years ago, or where a final assessment has been made. In the case of an appeal against assessment, the tribunal is differently constituted and will consist of two doctors with the third member, and as the urgency of getting a final decision in cases of entitlement is greater than that of getting an assessment adjusted, it is proposed to begin by setting up tribunals to deal with cases of entitlement, while the other tribunals for dealing with assessment cases will be set up as soon as practicable later on. Your Lordships will see that it would obviously be undesirable for the pensions appeal tribunals to be brought into action as soon as an interim award has been made, but if the interim award or awards continue for two years, it is proposed to allow an appeal to an appeal tribunal.

I should add this, and it is the only other observation I need make, that if any question of law arises in connexion with the decision of a pensions appeal tribunal and either the appellant or the Minister of Pensions is dissatisfied with the decision as being erroneous on a point of law, provision is made for an appeal to the High Court. Such are the main provisions of this Bill. There has been very considerable discussion in the House of Commons on the subject and the Government are in course of proposing a 769 new Royal Warrant described in the White Paper which has been issued, which will materially extend the rights of claims to pensions. The White Paper, together with the revision of the Bill in another place, have been greeted, I think, with general approval, and it now only remains for the pensions appeal tribunals to be authorized by your Lordships' House, so that they can be constituted and set to work. I beg to move.

§ LORD NATHAN

My Lords, allow me to say by way of preliminary observation before I come to the Bill that I have the privilege of being a member of the Minister of Pensions' Central Advisory Committee, but of course to-day it is merely as an individual member of your Lordships' House and on behalf of my noble friends that I address myself to the observations of the noble and learned Viscount in moving the Second Reading of the Bill. My noble friends welcome this Bill. In a speech on war pensions in your Lordships' House some months ago, I referred to the necessity and urgency of appeal tribunals, and my noble friends regret that it was not found possible to introduce this Bill at an earlier stage. Undoubtedly, however, it will bring considerable comfort of mind and amelioration of situation to considerable numbers of those who have pensions and who may be dissatisfied and wish to appeal as regards the amount of assessment, but more particularly to those to whom the Minister of Pensions, in the exercise of his discretion and judgment, has so far found it impossible to award pensions, and who now under this Bill will have the opportunity of presenting their case to a tribunal appointed for the purpose, and, as the Lord Chancellor said, if questions of law should arise, of appealing to the High Court.

This Bill, of course, does not deal with the substance of the Royal Warrant. It is a Bill which is limited entirely to dealing primarily with questions of entitlement, and perhaps secondarily in point of time and importance with the question of the amount of assessment. There is nothing in this Bill which relates to the rate of the pension, as the scale upon which pensions may be awarded is prescribed by the Royal Warrant. I ventured, when addressing your Lord- 770 ships on a previous occasion in regard to pensions, to make some observations as to the rate of pensions and the conditions of the grant of pensions under the existing Royal Warrant. It would be out of place to-day that I should detain your Lordships by observations upon the Royal Warrant which is now to be amended in accordance with the White Paper that within the last week or ten days has been made available to the public and has already been discussed in another place, but it would be churlish on my part if I did not acknowledge the very great distance which the Government have gone in this White Paper, and therefore in the new Royal Warrant, to meet very definite apprehensions and greatly to alleviate the position of those who have come or may yet come within the provisions of the Royal Warrant. When I say "the Royal Warrant" it will of course be understood that the Royal Warrant applies only to those in the Armed Forces of the Crown. The Pensions Appeal Tribunals Bill, in addition to covering those persons, also covers those in the Mercantile Marine and Civil Service and civilians who may suffer from war injury. The field therefore which comes within the responsibility of the Minister of Pensions is very wide indeed, and the field of the pensions appeal tribunals is co-terminous with that. I am glad to think that, in the event of questions of law arising, there will be an opportunity of an appeal to the High Court and I learned with gratification the provision made as regards the bearing of the costs of the appellant.

There is one casual observation I would venture to make to the Lord Chancellor as to the composition of the appeal tribunals. He will not misunderstand me and believe that I am speaking from any personal interest, because I am not a candidate. Whereas on the appeal tribunals of the last war the chairmen, the legal members, were drawn exclusively from members of the Bar, I hope that opportunities may be found in the present instance of also drawing chairmen of tribunals from suitable members of the other branch of the profession. I observe that the Bill provides for the remuneration to be such as may be fixed by the Treasury. I hope that the remuneration may be of a standard which will attract to this highly 771 responsible work men of a suitable type, experience and character. With these observations, I beg on behalf of my noble friends to commend the Bill to your Lordships' House.