§ Caroline FlintTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many interim payments have been made to ex-miners suffering from respiratory disease; and if she will make a statement. [45366]
§ Mr. BattleTo date, 259 payments have been made.
At the High Court hearing on 27 March, solicitors acting for the plaintiffs were granted a three-month adjournment to allow for further discussions to take place with the Department's agents to seek to agree arrangements for the administration of outstanding claims.
Given this further delay, we undertook to make interim payments of £2,000 to a minimum of 5,000 elderly claimants currently in receipt of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit for chronic bronchitis and emphysema. We have now extended this offer to all claimants currently in receipt of this benefit, as well as to the widows of those previously in receipt of the benefit. We estimate that this could be as many as 13,000. The speed at which offers can be made is still reliant on the co-operation of the claimants' solicitors who need to submit evidence of receipt of benefit.
Discussions are continuing between the Department's representatives and the plaintiffs solicitors on suitable arrangements for assessing and compensating valid claims. To help facilitate speedy resolution of these discussions, we have agreed that Small Airways Disease (SAD) compensation should be paid even though no clear finding was made in relation to it in the High Court judgment.