HL Deb 12 September 1972 vol 335 cc197-8
LORD MAYBRAY-KING

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will give further consideration to the request of Far East prisoners of war for abolition of the "Seven-year rule" in the case of FEPOWS.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY (LORD ABERDARE)

No, my Lords. Article 5 of the Royal Warrant, which deals with claims made more than seven years after the end of service, confers very fair terms for the award of war pensions. While in these cases it is for the claimant to show that his disablement is related to service, if there is a reasonable doubt he is entitled to succeed. It was as a result of representations about the rule that, as recently as May this year, a special Far East Prisoners of War Unit, staffed by selected officers and doctors with expertise in these claims, was set up at Blackpool to ensure that no well-based claim would fail.

LORD MAYBRAY-KING

My Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for what he has done so far, may I ask him whether he is aware that the over-seven-year rule—which means that if an ex-Service man is ill, or disabled, or dies, more than seven years after his discharge the onus of proving that his disability or his death was due to his war conditions rests on the claimant—bears very heavily on the Far East prisoner of war? They had no war records; they were forbidden by the Japanese during the war, under pain of death, to keep any medical records. Their own hardship very often emerged much later than the seven years, and the Association would ask the noble Lord, in spite of all the good work he has done, to abolish the seven-year rule so far as the Far East prisoners of war are concerned.

LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, I appreciate very much the interest the noble Lord has taken for very many years in this matter, and we fully recognise the obligation we have to these ex-prisoners of war. But, of course, the evidence that a man is required to produce does not necessarily have to consist of official records, and if there is any reasonable doubt he is entitled to succeed in his claim. It was to help towards the correct apportioning of claims that this new unit has been set up at Blackpool, and I know that it has been welcomed by the Far East Prisoners of War Association.