Clause 42
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
11:30 am
Anne McGuire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Minister for Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Stirling, Labour)
Obviously, with your approval, Mr. Taylor, I shall respond as appropriate to the hon. Member for Rochdale in whose name amendment No. 148 has been tabled.
The two Government amendments make it clear that the Government may, as necessary, introduce regulations setting out the connections with the United Kingdom that a person with mesothelioma must have in order for them, or their dependants, to be able to receive a lump sum payment under the new scheme. The amendments make it clear that regulations may be made, depending on whether it is necessary to do so.
We want to ensure that payments from the new scheme are available to those who have contracted mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos in the United Kingdom. I make it clear that we do not expect people exposed abroad, or their dependants, to travel to the UK just to claim the payment or to make a claim from abroad. If we have evidence that the system is being used in that way, however, we want the power in regulations in order to deal with it. We do not anticipate any difficulties in that respect, but we feel that it is entirely appropriate that we take such an enabling power in the Bill.