Justice for Asbestos Victims Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group Annual Report 2014 Introduction This report covers Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group’s (GMAVSG) main work and campaigning activities throughout 2014: 1. Advice and support for asbestos victims. 2. Action Mesothelioma Day and campaigning work. 3. Support Group. 4. Meetings and events. 5. Acknowledgement of the generous financial support we received in 2014. 1. Advice and Support Welfare Reform has continued apace throughout 2014, although most of our client group has been spared the worst effects of the piecemeal and uneven introduction of Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment, the two major planks of the Government’s welfare reform agenda. Whilst the administration of the key social security benefits payable to victims of asbestos-related diseases, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit and lump sum payments under the Pneumoconiosis etc (Worker’s Compensation) Act 1979, runs more smoothly than for other benefits, the standard of medical assessments for non- malignant asbestos-related diseases still falls short in too many cases. ATOS, the private company which had most of the contracts for conducting medical assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), announced they were terminating their contracts with the DWP (this followed widespread criticism from all quarters about their performance). In the winding down process following this decision, we seem to be seeing more assessments and decisions being made without the full facts being taken into account, and in particular, without x-rays and other radiological evidence which is often crucial to the decision making process. This means more claims being wrongly refused, more appeals and more delays for asbestos victims. The number of new referrals to GMAVSG is very similar to last year. The proportion of mesothelioma cases is slightly up on last year, at around 50% of all referrals. While we still get referrals from outside the Greater Manchester area, most of these seem to be closer to home, usually from Lancashire. These referrals will often come from panel solicitors. Our most distant referral was from New Zealand but the client did use to live in Newton Heath!. 1 The overwhelming majority of our referrals still come directly from hospital consultants and Specialist Lung Cancer Nurses at the point of diagnosis. This relationship is vital for us and something we need to continue to nurture as it ensures asbestos victims get the advice and help they need at the earliest opportunity. In 2014, 4 new Lung Cancer Nurses from the Cecilia Unit at Wythenshawe Hospital spent the day with us, and accompanied us on home visits, in order to get a clearer understanding of the work we do. The table and chart below show the figures and breakdown by disease for all our referrals between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2014. GMAVSG new referrals in 2014 Disease Number % total % total GMR Mesothelioma 138 (124 GMR) 50.5% 49.8% Asbestosis 68 (60 GMR) 24.9% 24.1% Pleural Thickening 29 (27) 10.6% 10.9% Pleural Thickening + 10 3.7% 4.0% Asbestosis Lung Cancer + Asbestosis 7 2.6% 2.8% Lung Cancer – Asbestosis 17 6.2% 6.8% Lung cancer + Pleural 1 0.4% 0.4% Thickening Pleural Plaques/unknown 3 1.1% 1.2% Total All 273 100% 100% Total GMR 249 New Referrals to GMAVSG in 2014 Mesothelioma Asbestosis Pleural Thickening Pleural Thickening + Asbestosis Lung Cancer + ARD Pleural Plaques 2 2.a Action Mesothelioma Day 4th July 2014 The theme for Action Mesothelioma Day this year was medical research, and the ongoing battle to secure sustainable funding for research into better treatment and a cure for mesothelioma. It was fitting, therefore, that Lord Alton was the principal speaker at our public meeting. He has been a staunch supporter of asbestos victims in the House of Lords, and campaigned long and hard for funding for mesothelioma research. He had moved an amendment in the House of Lords to the Mesothelioma Bill (see below) which, if passed, would have seen a research supplement enshrined in law to fund research into mesothelioma. This amendment was lost by only 7 votes. Our other speaker was Alessandro Pugno, from the Italian asbestos victims network AFEVA, whose own step-father died from mesothelioma. He spoke movingly of how the asbestos cement multinational Eternit had devastated his home town of Casale Monferrato in northern Italy, and how virtually every family in this small town had lost a loved one to an asbestos disease, and some more than one. 7 MPs from the Greater Manchester area spoke before the dove release in Albert Square, including Andy Burnham (Shadow Secretary of State for Health) and Kate Green (Shadow Minister for Disabled People). A poignant absentee was, of course, Paul Goggins, former MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, who had been a good friend to GMAVSG, and to asbestos victims, in the Commons, and who had worked closely with his friend Lord Alton in defending compensation for mesothelioma victims and fighting for funding for mesothelioma research, in Parliament. Paul sadly died in January 2014. His successor in that constituency, Mike Kane (left), was one of the local MPs who spoke at the event, and rightly acknowledged Paul’s massive contribution on behalf of asbestos victims in Parliament. The MPs who spoke in Albert Square were: Andy Burnham (Leigh); Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston); Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East); Simon Danczuk (Rochdale); Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth); Lisa Nandy (Wigan); Lucy Powell (Manchester Central). The doves, in memory of all those who had lost their lives to mesothelioma, were released by Maureen Ogden and Mavis Tong, who have both lost their husbands to mesothelioma, and Santia Hazelhurst, who lost her Grand-dad Gordon Marriott, also to mesothelioma. 2.b. The Mesothelioma Act 2014/Diffuse Mesothelioma Payments Scheme In 2013, GMAVSG, along with other groups from the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK (the Forum), campaigned hard for improvements to the Mesothelioma Bill that had been introduced in Parliament. This legislation was the culmination of long negotiations, starting under the previous Government, to set up a statutory scheme, funded by the insurance industry, to compensate asbestos victims who could not pursue a civil claim 3 for compensation because the firm where they had been exposed to asbestos was no longer trading, and their insurers at the time the exposure occurred, could not be traced. The initial hopes and expectations of victims had been that any scheme would compensate all asbestos victims, at a rate comparable to the compensation they might have secured in a civil claim. The provisions in the Mesothelioma Bill however, meant that only people diagnosed with mesothelioma (and no other asbestos diseases) after 25 July 2012 would be able to apply for compensation. And compensation would be restricted to 75% of the average awards made in civil claims. The Mesothelioma Bill became the Mesothelioma Act 2014 in January and the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payments Scheme (DMPS) came into existence with effect from April 2014. Largely due to effective lobbying from the Forum, in which members of GMAVSG played a significant part, and intense debate in Parliament, payments under the scheme had been increased to 80% by the time the regulations setting up the DMPS were passed. The DMPS is a huge improvement on the previous situation, where asbestos victims were left with no prospect of compensation if no employer or insurer could be found to sue. But GMAVSG, along with the Forum, will continue to campaign for further improvements, including a guarantee of 100% compensation, all asbestos diseases to be eligible, and a levy to be imposed on insurers, by law, to ensure the DMPS has sufficient funding to provide for this. As of 10 February 2015, compensation awards have been increased to 100% but there is no guarantee they will remain at this level in the future. 2.c. LASPO exemption In 2012 Parliament agreed to exempt mesothelioma victims from one of the clauses, introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, that meant most claimants winning personal injury civil claims could see any damages they won in court being reduced by their lawyers deducting costs that had previously been paid by the defendants. This exemption was contingent on a future review that the Government agreed to conduct, which would assess the likely impact on mesothelioma claimants before any decision was made to lift the exemption. In 2014 the Government stated they were going to remove this exemption without having conducted any proper review. The Forum, represented by Tony Whitston, lodged a Judicial Review in the High Court, arguing that the Government had not complied with the terms of its commitment, and therefore the decision to lift the exemption was unlawful. In October 2014, the High Court found in favour of the Forum, stopping Government plans to impose extra costs on mesothelioma victims in their tracks, for the time being at least. 2.d. Delegation to Eternit Trial in Italy At Manchester’s Action Mesothelioma Day event in July, our guest Alessandro Pugno vividly outlined the impact that the multinational asbestos company Eternit had had on his home town of Casale Monferrato in Italy. Very few families had avoided losing a family member to mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease. Many of those who had died had never worked for Eternit, but had been exposed to asbestos from a family member’s work-clothes, or through the asbestos waste and dust that was in the environment. 4 The Italian Courts had sentenced the Chief Executive of Eternit, Stephan Schmidheiny, to 18 years imprisonment for causing an ‘environmental catastrophe’, and the decision whether to ratify or overturn this verdict would be made by Italy’s highest court in November 2014.