Examination of Witnesses (Questions 118-119)
1 MARCH 2005
Mr Nigel Griffiths, Mr Nick French, Ms Ann Taylor
and Ms Christine Chamberlain
Q118 Chairman: Good afternoon,
Mr Griffiths. Would you like to introduce your team, and then
we will get started?
Nigel Griffiths:
Thank you, Mr O'Neill. Ann Taylor, CBE, is the Director of our
Co-Liabilities Unit; Nick French is the Assistant Director of
the COPD Operations, the respiratory claims, and Christine Chamberlain
is the Assistant Director of Vibration White Finger Operations.
I should like to thank you and the Members here for your long-term
commitment on behalf of constituents to this scheme. I estimate
that the six Members present on the Committee—and I know
others are in the Chamber—have represented up to 12,488
sick miners, at a total cost in compensation of £67.2 million.
Thank you for your help.
Q119 Chairman: I am sure
our constituents will be informed! We started with the best of
intentions. It probably could have had a better beginning, but
there is a sense now that we seem to be on the right track, and
there are probably still some shortcomings, and we will want to
explore them, but after a difficult start and a period when it
looked as if you were being swamped, are you beginning to see
lights at the ends of tunnels?
Nigel Griffiths: I think that
is a very fair summary. If you look at the estimates that the
National Union of Mineworkers, the solicitors and the DTI had
provided in the beginning, they were far too low: 5,000 vibration
white finger lead cases, with a forecast of 40,000, was more than
four times an underestimate of 170,000; and 30,000 respiratory
COPD claims, with a forecast of 70,000 cases, more than eight
times underestimated. There was a rapid response in the early
days which meant that solicitors as well as us had capacity problems;
but the desire of members and my predecessors and of the Department
staff was to catch sick miners while they were still alive and
make payments as quickly as possible. What have become the two
largest personal injury compensation schemes in the world have
evolved from there, and so have the staffing ratios been ratcheted
up.
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