The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Pound on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many claims for asbestos-related illnesses were made against his Department in each year since 2003.
Jenny Willott
The asbestos-related personal injury claims for which the Department is responsible are mainly historical liabilities that were assumed by the Department from various bodies, including former nationalised industries, whose liabilities transferred to the Department (as previously constituted) when those bodies ceased to exist.
Based on available data, the number of claims for the years in question are listed by category, and are as follows:
|
Year
|
National
Dock Labour Board
|
British
Shipbuilders[1]
|
British Shipbuilers Chester Street[2]
|
British Coal[3]
|
Others[4]
|
|
2003
|
|
645
|
31
|
11
|
|
|
2004
|
|
854
|
37
|
103
|
|
|
2005
|
|
771
|
15
|
47
|
|
|
2006
|
|
214
|
4
|
42
|
|
|
2007
|
|
119
|
8
|
42
|
1
|
|
2008
|
115[5]
|
126
|
4
|
36
|
2
|
|
2009
|
44
|
168
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
2010
|
45
|
133
|
7
|
|
3
|
|
2011
|
47
|
124
|
4
|
|
1
|
|
2012
|
45
|
232
|
3
|
|
1
|
|
2013
|
37
|
160
|
4
|
|
2
|
|
2014
|
6
|
33
|
1
|
|
2
|
The footnotes below provide further information on these numbers.
[1]British Shipbuilders was a separate legal entity, with BIS, as formerly constituted, as its sponsor department. British Shipbuilders was wound up in March 2013. Since then responsibility for these claims has passed to BIS.
[2]BIS is responsible for compensation claims made against former British Shipbuilders’ companies that were sold with their liabilities during privatisation, and which subsequently became insolvent, as did their insurer, Chester Street Insurance Holdings Ltd. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not compensate former employees in respect of periods of employment with nationalised industries (such as British Shipbuilders) and the Department (the then DTI) assumed liability for this compensation by way of a Minute to Parliament in 2003.
[3] BIS does not hold complete figures for asbestos claims for British Coal for calendar years 2003, 2005 and 2006. British Coal liabilities transferred to the Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) on its creation in October 2008, so no figures have been included after that date.
[4]The claims listed in the column headed “Others” are claims for which the Department is responsible as the successor to partner organisations and executive agencies which no longer exist.
[5]The figure of 115 NDLB claims for 2008 is the complete number for the years 2006 – 2008 as the figures for these years have been aggregated.
