Statute Of Limitation On Compensation Claims

EDM number 990 in 1989-90, proposed by Frank Cook on 15/05/1990.

That this House notes that section 15 of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 imposes a 30-year limitation period on the bringing of claims for damages for personal injury and/or death caused by breach of duty on the part of a site licensee under that Act; notes too the report of Professor Martin Gardner which indicates that there may be a causal relationship between radiation doses received by Sellafield workers and the excess of leukaemias amongst their children; notes further that many such workers may have received part or all of their doses in the 1950s, that is, outside the 30-year limitation period; opines it inequitable that those workers and their children may be barred from seeking compensation by such statute; questions whether it is Her Majesty's Government's intention in relation to nuclear installations in which it has a controlling interest, or which it administers, to rely on such a statute of limitations in any litigation brought under the Act seeking compensation for death or genetic damage; and urges the Secretary of State for Energy to bring forward measures to amend the 1965 Act so as to extend the limitation period and so take account of recently gleaned epidemiological evidence.

This motion has been signed by a total of 45 MPs.