A report has been released by the Government in which the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) has recommended amendments for regulations in accordance with presumption.
The report, chaired by Professor Keith Palmer, was addressed to the Secretary of State. In the introductory address, the report was outlined, with a brief description of presumption. Presumption, the report states, "allows decision makers evaluating individual claims for IIDB to presume that a disease is due to occupation." IIDB refers to the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.
The report goes on to say that whilst the Regulation which controls presumption (Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations 1985) contains a schedule of diseases which leaves claimants, in theory, fully able to benefit from presumption, there remain some gaps in regards to the time rules.
"Not all prescribed diseases attract the benefit of presumption, while some have time rules that are specific to them," the report states, and makes the point that this Regulation was created at a period of time when occupational diseases included on the prescribed list developed much faster, to the point where they were suffered during the term of employment. With advances in medicine and overall quality of life, prescribed diseases are developing slower, and are showing much later in life.
With this in mind, the report concludes that amendments must be made to the Regulation that allows "a more scientifically based time rule" which will offer "scope to strengthen further this Scheme's administrative efficiency." This is in response to a rate of 95% of claimants of IIDB receiving the benefit through presumption, as opposed to the drastically lower 40-60% estimate of those who successfully claim through civil proceedings. Additionally, presumption has been proven to be vastly cost-effective, due to the speed of which a claim can be processed.
Even with an anticipated higher rate of IIDB claim approval with the proposed time rule changes, the costs will remain small and almost unaffected, the report believes, as "since (in March 2010) 96% of all awards in payment related to only 12 prescribed diseases, eight of which will not change." They also acknowledge that their proposed attitude towards time rules has already been implemented in regards to several diseases including mesothelioma, despite the current limits.
