Schedule 1 - Amendments to Pensions Appeal Tribunals Act 1943
Armed Forces
9:30 am
Mr Ivor Caplin (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Hove, Labour)
I am pleased to respond to the arguments made by the hon. Member for Canterbury in support of the amendments. It might be helpful if I go through the amendments one by one, as he did, and deal with the issues as I see them.
If I have understood correctly, amendment No. 16 would ensure that a right of appeal lay against the initial decision on a claim under the new compensation scheme. If that is the case, there is some misunderstanding, which I hope to clear up. We propose to amend section 5A of the Pensions Appeal Tribunals Act 1943 to introduce rights of appeal to the tribunals that we have discussed this morning under the new armed forces compensation scheme, but not to disturb any existing rights to appeal under the war pensions scheme.
The amendments appear to confuse the existing rights under the war pensions scheme with those proposed under the new compensation scheme. Sections 1 and 2 of the 1943 Act apply to rights of appeal against decisions to reject claims for war pensions under the war pensions scheme. We do not propose to introduce an internal disputes resolution procedure to that scheme. I hope that that helps the hon. Gentleman.