§ 102. Mr. Platts-Millsasked the Minister of National Insurance whether he has considered the evidence given before the Departmental Committee on Industrial Diseases by the Trades Union Congress. O. H. Parsons, Esq., solicitor, Professor J. M. Mackintosh, M.D., F.R.C.P., and Dr. Donald Hunter, F.R.C.P., recommending that benefit under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946. 125W should be payable in respect of every disease which the applicant can show was caused by his work; and if he will accept and act upon this recommendation.
§ Mr. SteeleThe Committee held these suggestions to be outside their terms of reference and therefore made no recommendation on them. The suggestions, which are by no means new, raise wide issues which cannot be properly assessed until we have had a good deal more experience of the working of the new scheme.
§ 103. Mr. Platts-Millsasked the Minister of National Insurance whether he is aware that under the terms of Clause 2 (a) of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations, 1948 (S.I., 1948, No. 1371), it is now impossible for certain workers suffering from prescribed diseases to claim benefit whereas they were able previously to recover compensation under Sections 43 (1) and 44 (1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925; and if he will amend the regulations so as to end this anomaly.
§ Mr. SteeleI do not know what kind of case the hon. Member has in mind, but if he cares to let me have particulars I will consider them.
§ Mr. Platts-Millsasked the Minister of National Insurance whether he accepts the recommendation in paragraph 36 of the report of the Departmental Committee on Industrial Diseases which proposes that the time limit for the operation of a presumption should bear closer relation to the nature of the particular disease than it did under the Workmen's Compensation Acts; and whether he will accordingly modify articles 4 (1) and (2) of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations, 1948 (S.I., 1948; No. 1371), so as to bring them into line with the recommendation.
§ Mr. SteeleThe regulations to which the hon. Member refers already provide more favourable time limits for presumptions than did the Workmen's Compensation Acts, and my right hon. Friend will be watching their operation to see whether, in the light of the recommendations which the hon. Member has mentioned, any modification is necessary.