Hope of £5,000 compensation for asbestos victims

Hope of £5,000 compensation for asbestos victims

People suffering from pleural plaques through exposure to asbestos could qualify for a £5,000 payment if the outcome of a new government consultation goes in their favour.

Last year the House of Lords ruled that the condition - a scarring on the lining of the lungs that is a sign of exposure to asbestos but does not of itself lead to more serious conditions - was not worthy of compensation.

Now the government has launched a consultation into this decision, asking for views on the most appropriate way of supporting people diagnosed with the illness.

The options on the table include the production of a leaflet to reassure sufferers to, at the other end of the scale, a reversal of the Law Lords' decision. One of the options likely to garner wide support from campaigners, however, is a £5,000 'no fault' payment to sufferers.

'We would fully support such a scheme on the condition that it was available to all pleural-plaque sufferers, not only those that already had a claim in the system,' says Tony Whitston, the chairman of Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK. 'We would also want the payout to be made without the need for solicitors, and for sufferers to have the right to ask for further compensation if they develop a serious asbestos-related illness in the future.'

After the ruling last October, the Scottish government announced that it intended to reverse the Law Lords' decision by introducing new legislation, and it has.....continued below

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now tabled a bill allowing it to do that. This has left pleural plaques sufferers facing a postcode lottery to determine whether they qualify for compensation.

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