§ LORD HALEasked Her Majesty's Government:
To give full particulars of the recently announced intended grant to the Pneumoconiosis Board for supplemental benefits and to make clear that sufferers from byssinosis and asbestosis and diffuse mesotheliora are entitled to benefit on similar conditions.
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (LORD BALOGH)There have been no recent changes in the industrial injuries scheme administered by the Department of Health and Social Security which are relevant to this Question. If the Question is intended to refer to the recently introduced Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme, this is a scheme set up by the coal mining industry under an agreement between the National Coal Board and the mining unions. It offers benefits in settlement of legal claims against the Board to existing and future sufferers from pneumoconiosis contracted through employment in a coal mine. As already announced, the Government propose, subject to Parliamentary approval, to make a contribution to the cost of the scheme in order to relieve the Coal Board's finances of the heavy burden of about 39,000 past cases. These arrangements are particular to the coal mining industry.