Asbestos compensation campaign ‘will continue despite setback’

Posted 19/11/2009

MPs supporting the restoration of the right to compensation claims for pleural plaque sufferers have vowed to overcome a recent parliamentary setback to the campaign.

Dave Anderson, the MP for Blaydon, has told the Evening Chronicle that MPs will be looking to keep the issue of compensation on the political agenda, despite parliament’s failure to ratify a related private member’s bill.

The bill, which would have overturned the ban on compensation claims for those who contract pleural plaques from exposure, did not win the approval of the House of Lords before the end of the parliamentary session.

Mr Anderson said that this outcome was expected, as was the issue’s omission from the Queen’s Speech, but stated that MPs would be continuing to work to promote the cause in parliament.

He said: “We are working together to find a mechanism to get this through.”

Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians general secretary Alan Ritchie was among those to voice his support for the issue in recent weeks, describing the current ban on compensation claims as “unjust”.