asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the current average cost, including historical expenditure, but excluding awards of compensation, of handling each claim under (a) the British Coal respiratory disease litigation, and (b) the British Coal vibration white finger litigation. [HL2950]
It is difficult to calculate average costs for handling claims, as the costs we pay to contractors are not activity-based. However, indicative average costs as at 31 March 2007 are approximately £3,500 for respiratory disease and £2,600 for vibration white finger.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total amount in respect of legal costs, including those incurred at trial, paid to their solicitors, Nabarro Nathanson, in respect of (a) the British Coal respiratory disease litigation, and (b) the British Coal white finger vibration litigation; and what estimate they have made of the further amount of legal costs to be paid to those solicitors before the winding-up of each claims handling scheme. [HL3109]
As at end of February 2007, the costs paid to Nabarro are £34 million. This cannot be broken down by claim type and covers chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, vibration white finger and others.
On current estimates, it is expected that a further £9 million costs will be incurred by end March 2010.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have made an assessment of the number of eligible claimants entitled to make service claims in the British Coal white finger vibration litigation, but whose solicitors failed to lodge the required applications. [HL3110]
The department does not have this information. It is up to the claimant and their solicitors to ensure that a claim is submitted if they wish to make a services claim under the vibration white finger scheme.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have made an assessment of their claims handlers' practice of making full and final settlement offers in respect of retired miners suffering chronic bronchitis in the British Coal respiratory disease litigation and thereby not giving their widows the right to lodge subsequent claims under the claims handling agreement for emphysema diagnosed on post mortem. [HL3111]
The majority of claims in the respiratory disease scheme have passed through the medical assessment process (MAP). The MAP involves completion of a report by a respiratory physician specialising, and having had training, in this particular field. The MAP is an exceptionally thorough, and necessarily complex, assessment. In the case of live men, it is used to assess a man's health as it stands at that period in time. The claims handling agreement provides for the MAP report to be disputed. The department makes full and final offers in settlement of these claims and it is not possible for these claims to be reopened.
To reopen any of these claims would simply not be in the public interest. It would also defeat the core purposes for which the scheme was initiated; namely, to provide a fair, efficient and timely means by which to ensure damages are paid.