MP calls for UK extension of Scottish asbestos compensation law

Posted 13/01/2010

A campaigning MP has called on the UK government to follow Scotland’s lead in allowing sufferers of pleural plaques to make compensation claims against their employers.

Dave Anderson, the representative for Blaydon, has welcomed Scottish authorities’ recent decision to dismiss a judicial review by the insurance industry to have the law repealed, reports the Evening Chronicle.

Sufferers of the -related condition in Scotland have been able to make compensation claims since a ruling in June 2009, but those in England and Wales are still prohibited from doing so by a House of Lords ruling from 2007.

Mr Anderson argued that the Scottish system should have been established across the country for some time and urged the prime minister to do so as soon as possible.

He said: “I believe what has happened in Scotland has shown the way forward for the Westminster parliament doing exactly the same thing.”

The dismissal of the insurance industry protests has been welcomed by several trade unions, including GMB, which criticised the judicial review as “totally and morally unjust”.