Pleural plaques

Unions have continued to campaign for legislation to redress a House of Lords judgment on pleural plaques. Pleural plaques are areas of thick scar tissue in the chest lining and diaphragm, indicating exposure to asbestos dust and fibres.

In October 2007, the House of Lords (now Supreme Court) upheld a Court of Appeal decision preventing people with pleural plaques from claiming compensation (Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd and others [2007] UKHL 39). The Scottish Parliament reversed this decision by passing the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009 (the Damages Act), which came into force in June 2009. The Act enables victims suffering from pleural plaques to bring personal injury claims for compensation.

Many insurers opposed the Damages Act. They brought a legal challenge arguing that the new law breached the insurers’ property rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and would open the way to a flood of claims. The Court of Sessions rejected these arguments in a judgment delivered in April 2011, welcomed by the Scottish TUC.

In March 2011, the right to compensation for pleural plaques was also restored in Northern Ireland, with the passing by the Northern Ireland Assembly of the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) Act NI. In Northern Ireland, people suffering from pleural plaques have been able to seek compensation from 14 December 2011. This leaves the government in England and Wales isolated in continuing to fail to legislate for compensation for sufferers of pleural plaques.

The Labour government ruled out amending the law, and instead announced that it would pay a £5,000 lump sum under an extra-statutory scheme to workers who already had claims lodged at the time of the legal ruling. This meant that pleural plaques sufferers in England and Wales who had not already lodged a legal case and people who develop pleural plaques in the future could not claim compensation under this scheme.