Mesothelioma victims deserve more than partial justice

Mesothelioma is a terrible disease. A rare form of cancer, it affects the lining of the chest wall or abdomen, hardening the muscles until a sufferer can no longer breathe. Today in Parliament we will be debating and voting on a new law that will at last offer at least some justice to victims of this appalling disease.

The Bill represents the culmination of years of campaigning by Labour MPs, alongside victims’ groups and trade unions, and follows proposals for change consulted on by the last Labour government. But while the Labour Party – long-time campaigners for the rights of Mesothelioma sufferers – are very supportive of any additional assistance that can be secured, we are extremely concerned that the new law proposed by the government does not go far enough.

Mesothelioma has just one cause: exposure to asbestos. For people diagnosed with the disease, it is a death sentence. There is no cure and, although it is a long-tail disease (symptoms don’t appear until decades after exposure) once diagnosed, sufferers will often have just months to live. Almost all die within three years of receiving a diagnosis.

Since 1969 – thanks to a law introduced by the Labour Party – employees who become sick at work have been protected by employers’ liability insurance, providing compensation that can offer some financial security when illness or accident strikes simply as a result of going out to work.

But the fact that the disease lies dormant in the body for many years before the symptoms become visible, coupled with new companies entering the market while others leave or go out of business, and the widespread misplacement of insurance and employment records, has meant that one in eight sufferers diagnosed today are unable to trace their employer or insurer to lodge a claim. Victims and families are stranded without any access to the compensation they deserve. It is a shocking example of the “irresponsible capitalism” that Ed Miliband has campaigned against.

This week, MPs will debate the passage of a new law designed to create a compensation scheme of last resort for sufferers who can’t trace an employer or employer’s insurer. Funded by an industry-wide levy on current employer’s liability insurance providers, sufferers who are unable trace their employer or their employer’s insurer can apply to the fund. Successful applicants will receive 75% of the average compensation of claimants of the same age who have pursued civil compensation claims.

It is a scheme that the Labour Party supports. Indeed we launched the original consultation in 2010 which set the grounds for the Bill we will discuss in Parliament today. But, despite being supportive of the sentiments underpinning this new law, we remain concerned that it does not offer justice to people enduring the effects of this fatal disease.

We believe there is no moral justification for Mesothelioma sufferers, victims of our industrial past, to only receive a fraction of the compensation offered to others. Under the government’s plans they will be forced to pay a high penalty because, through no fault of their own, they are unable to trace their previous employers or insurers. Yet the government’s own figures show that the industry, which owes an obligation to them, could afford to pay more.

Moreover, whilst this new law might provide some limited justice for people diagnosed since July 2012 (the date when it was first introduced into the House of Lords), the Bill ignores the 6,000 victims who have died before this arbitrary cut-off date. This is despite the fact that the Labour government outlined clear intentions in 2010 to create this scheme. Insurers have been on notice to prepare for changes for some time. The limited scheme, now before us, has been extracted from an industry that has done all it can over the years to avoid paying out a penny, and even now, in the government’s own words, had to be “dragged” to the table.

Labour is determined to fight for a more generous scheme for sufferers. At the very least, we will be demanding that the levy on insurance companies to meet the cost of payouts is protected in law at the 3% figure the industry itself says it can afford. And we will be supporting amendments to increase the level of payment from the 75% currently proposed by the government to at least 80% – a level which is also demonstrably affordable.

Our top priority today is to get this Bill through Parliament, in order to finally get the scheme up and running for Mesothelioma sufferers. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be fighting right to the last to do all we can to improve the Bill. Labour will insist this new law must operate in the interests of the sufferers of this horrific disease. Responsible capitalism must mean that we hold businesses to their responsibilities to ordinary workers. Yet for decades, the insurance industry has failed to meet its responsibilities, accumulating profits from the premiums it has collected over the years whilst avoiding its obligations to victims, while the Tory-led government seems content to put the interests of big business before those who suffer from this terrible disease. Mesothelioma victims deserve better than this.

Kate Green MP, Shadow Minister for Disabled People and Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston