§ Rachel SquireTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action she is taking to encourage insurance companies to reduce the delay in making payments to those with asbestos-related diseases in Scotland. [41434]
§ Mrs. LiddellOn Wednesday 6 March I chaired a meeting of parties involved in handling asbestos claims related to Chester Street Insurance Holding Ltd. Present694W at the meeting were PricewaterhouseCoopers (the Chester Street administrators); the Association of British Insurers; the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Iron Trades Management Services (claims handlers).
At the meeting, I made it very clear that delays in dealing with agreed claims are not acceptable. All parties acknowledged that agreed claims should be paid as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The administrators, the ABI, the FSCS and ITMS made the point to me that the arrangements set up following the insolvency of Chester Street are unique. There had been complexities, particularly in relation to establishing liabilities. In some cases, solvent policyholders (i.e. the companies, or their successors, for whom the claimants had originally worked) have been traced and their liabilities have had to be established. However, this type of work has now largely been completed. As a result, it should be possible to process claims payments more quickly in the future.
In a number of cases, those present at the meeting indicated that settlement forms had been sent out to claimants' lawyers, for the claimant to sign. Clearly, it is important for these forms to be signed and returned as soon as possible, to speed the process along.
I am anxious to ensure that individual claimants are kept informed of the process. It was agreed that a newsletter will be produced within the next week, to be distributed to Members of Parliament with a constituency interest. We will also consider other ways of keeping individual claimants informed.
We also discussed whether it would be possible to establish a system so that once a claim against Chester Street is agreed, the claimant would know how long it should take for the claim to be processed. The administrators, the ABI, FSCS and ITMS agreed to consider this further and report back to me.
I will convene a further meeting in six weeks' time to discuss the claims handling process. I made it clear that, when this next meeting takes place, I want to see significant progress made in paying claims. We will invite other relevant parties to the meeting, such as claimants' solicitors. We will also have detailed statistical information available on the number of claims made; the number settled and the number still outstanding.
The Government are determined to make sure that the arrangements put in place following the insolvency of Chester Street last year work as efficiently and as quickly as possible.