COAL HEALTH CLAIMS HANDLING AGREEMENT

Early day motion 1810, tabled 25 October 2004 by Michael Clapham (Labour). Signed by 70 members.

That this House is most concerned by what appears to be the intention of the Department for Trade and Industry to exclude an unknown but potentially large number of deceased claims from recovering damages under the Coal Health Claims Handling Agreement, notwithstanding the fact that the Agreement was designed by Lawyers for both sides under the direction of the Court and in the knowledge that in many cases medical records would not be available and that under the medical assessment process the respiratory specialists would do the best they could in arriving at a balance of probability decision resulting in a discount in compensation payable in recognition of the paucity of medical evidence; is alarmed that the DTI has moved away from the Agreement and has described cases where there is a paucity of medical evidence as unassessable claims; and calls on the DTI to go back to the principles of the Agreement under which 180,000 claims have already been processed instead of pressing ahead with a change that will damage confidence in the claims handling process.

Signatures by party: Labour 53, Liberal Democrat 8, Labour/Co-operative 6, Plaid Cymru 2, Scottish National Party 1.