Pneumoconiosis and Byssinosis Benefit Act 1951
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1951 c. 4 |
Pneumoconiosis and Byssinosis Benefit Act , 1951
(15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 4
An Act to provide for the payment of benefit out of the Industrial Injuries Fund to or in respect of certain persons who are totally disabled or die or have died after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-nine from pneumoconiosis or byssinosis, not being or having been insured in respect of those diseases respectively under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946, or entitled to workmen's compensation in respect thereof.
[7th December 1951]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Pneumoconiosis and byssinosis benefit schemes.
(1) The Minister of National Insurance may, by a scheme made with the consent of the Treasury, provide for the payment of allowances or other benefit out of the Industrial Injuries Fund—
(a ) to persons who, having been employed in Great Britain before the fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-eight in any occupation, being a prescribed occupation in relation to a disease to which this Act applies, are at the commencement of the scheme, or thereafter become, totally disabled by that disease;
(b ) to the dependants of persons who, having been so employed, die or have died at any time after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-nine as a result of that disease.
(2) The diseases to which this Act applies are pneumoconiosis and byssinosis.
(3) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, the right to benefit in pursuance of a scheme under this section shall be subject to such conditions as may be provided by the scheme, and the rate or amount of any such benefit shall be such as may be so provided.
(4) Any scheme under this section may be revoked or varied by a subsequent scheme thereunder.
(5) The power to make a scheme under this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, but the Minister shall not make any such scheme unless a draft of it has been laid before Parliament and approved by resolution of each House.
2 Restrictions on scope of schemes.
(1) A scheme under section one of this Act shall not provide for the payment of benefit to or in respect of a person disabled or dying as a result of a disease to which this Act applies—
(a ) if he has on or after the fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-eight been employed in insurable employment in any occupation, being a prescribed occupation in relation to that disease;
(b ) if he or any person being a member of his family within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925, has received or is entitled to compensation in respect of the disablement or death by virtue of any scheme made or certified under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, or by virtue of any scheme or law in force in any country or territory outside Great Britain providing for compensation in respect of that disease;
(c ) if he would have received or would be entitled to such compensation by virtue of any scheme made or certified as aforesaid but for the fact that he was or is entitled to receive compensation in respect of disablement from any other disease or in respect of an injury by accident;
(d ) if he or his personal representative or any of his relatives has recovered any sum by way of damages in respect of the disablement or death, whether at common law or under the Fatal Accidents Acts, 1846 to 1908, or the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1934;
(e ) if throughout the employment mentioned in paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of section one of this Act he was employed otherwise than as a workman within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925.
(2) A scheme under section one of this Act shall not provide for the payment of benefit to or in respect of a person disabled or dying as a result of the disease of byssinosis unless he has been employed for a period or periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than twenty years in an occupation being a prescribed occupation in relation to that disease, and shall not provide for the payment of benefit to a person so disabled unless it is determined in accordance with the scheme that the disablement is likely to be permanent.
(3) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be without prejudice to any other restrictions which may be imposed by a scheme under section one of this Act in respect of the persons to or in respect of whom benefit is payable under the scheme.
3 Nature and amount of benefit.
(1) The benefit payable to any person in pursuance of a scheme under section one of this Act in respect of disablement shall be by way of a weekly allowance.
(2) Subject to the following provisions of this Act and to any provisions of the scheme for the...
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