Health & Safety Update (March 2010)
Accessing Compensation - Proposals to Help those Made Ill by
Work
Thousands of people with serious industrial diseases who cannot
trace their employers' insurance records should be able to claim
compensation thanks to recent Government proposals.
Where a person is injured or made ill through their work, as a
result of the employer's negligence, they would normally claim
civil damages from the employer. However, a number of people have
been unable to trace their employers' liability insurance policy
and make a claim. This is because some industrial diseases
only appear decades later when employers may have ceased trading or
they may have not kept old insurance records or lost them.
Plans have been set out to create an Employers Liability Tracing
Office to help people track down their employers' liability
insurance policies, and an Employers' Liability Insurance Bureau to
provide a fund of last resort for those who are unable to trace
them.
The proposed tracing office will incorporate an electronic
database of employers' liability insurance policies, which should
make it easier to track down these records and improve the existing
tracing service.
The consultation will consider:
- how the tracing office could be best managed and funded
- the scope of help that could be provided by an employers
liability insurance bureau, the timing of claims and how much
compensation could be paid
- what more employers can do to meet their obligations to
maintain employers' liability compulsory insurance.
A voluntary Code of Practice for tracing Employers' Liability
insurance policies, set up in 1999 has led to some improvements,
but many individuals are still left without help.