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Pleural Plaques

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to his Department’s consultation paper CP 1408 on pleural plaques, which Government department will have responsibility for any disbursement of payments from the public purse in relation to each option set out in CP 14/08; and if he will make a statement. (219960)

The consultation paper considers the issues that arise in relation to changing the law of negligence and invites views on whether this would or would not be appropriate. It also seeks views on the merits of offering no fault financial support to people diagnosed with pleural plaques, and on two possible ways of doing this. Decisions on the appropriate way forward, including any issues in relation to funding, will be taken in the light of consultation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to his Department’s consultation paper CP14/08, on pleural plaques, what estimate he has made of the potential liability falling on the public purse under policy options (a) 4 and (b) 5; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of the overall cost under each option proposed that might fall on the public purse. (220309)

The consultation paper discusses the possible approaches in relation to the funding of any no fault scheme which might be introduced under policy option 4 or 5. Decisions on the appropriate way forward will be taken in the light of consultation.

The initial impact assessment accompanying the consultation paper estimates the potential cost of option 4 to be between £52 million and £196 million (excluding set-up costs), and of option 5 to be between £780 million and £4.8 billion (excluding set-up costs).