§ Lord Lofthouse of Pontefractasked Her Majesty's Government:
Given the number of years since Mr Justice Turner's judgment in 1998 in favour of miners suffering from respiratory disease, (a) whether it is acceptable for those miners or their widows to have to wait another similar period before all outstanding cases are dealt with and (b) when they expect the process to be complete. [HL1338]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe handling agreement was formally signed with the solicitors acting for the claimants on 24 September 1999. Claims could not have been dealt with before this date. It has taken further time to agree outstanding issues with the claimants' solicitors. These have now largely been resolved, enabling us now to start making offers in larger numbers.
With over 170,000 claims registered, this is the largest personal injury compensation scheme in British history and it will take time to settle all claims. It would be inappropriate for the department to make predictions about the overall length of the scheme while over 900 new claims continue to be registered each week.
§ Lord Lofthouse of Pontefractasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they will effectively tackle the bottlenecks which have created the present backlog of approximately 170,000 respiratory claims by miners. [HL1339]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleApproximately 170,000 claims have been registered to date in respect of compensation for respiratory disease.
The outstanding issues in relation to claims have now largely been resolved. This means that where previously only interim payments could be made, offers can now be made in full. Although it will take some time for the process to ramp up fully in all respects, the department's aim is that IRISC, the department's claims handlers, will have made 50,000 offers by the end of next year.
Claims continue to be processed in accordance with the handling agreement whereby the most elderly and ill claimants are being prioritised. Widows are also being dealt with first wherever possible. The department aims to have processed claims from the most vulnerable by spring 2002.
§ Lord Lofthouse of Pontefractasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, after the compensation is in place, they now accept a timetable of years, rather than months, before miners' respiratory claims are settled. [HL1340]
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§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleFor the scheme as a whole, the department envisages that it will take some years to finish. A prioritisation process is in place to seek to ensure that the oldest, most vulnerable claimants have their claims dealt with as soon as possible. While claims continue to be registered at a rate of over 900 a week for respiratory disease and over 300 a week for vibration white finger, it is inappropriate to put a timescale on completion.
§ Lord Lofthouse of Pontefractasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Department of Trade and Industry has retained Mr Mark Pyeman of Shell to act as a management consultant and to investigate and prepare a report on the whole process of handling miners' compensation claims; whether the consultant has completed his investigation; and, if so, whether his full report will be made available to both Houses. [HL1343]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe department has engaged Mark Pyman on secondment from Shell to advise us on ways of improving the management of the delivery of the respiratory disease and vibration white finger schemes. He joined the Coal Health Claims Unit at the end of August and has had extensive discussions with all parties involved in the schemes. He has worked with a team from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) which had been asked to advise the department on the best structure for the Coal Health Claims Unit following the initial phase of the schemes.
Mr Pyman has made recommendations to the department which we have agreed and are putting into operation. The department does not intend formally to make public those recommendations, which relate to internal management of the department and its relations both with contractors and solicitors representing claimants. The broad conclusions have however been discussed with interested parties who have generally welcomed the changes the department is now putting into effect.