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Minutes
25th
October 20004 - Meeting with the Secretary of State
The meeting was attended by Dr John Reid (Secretary of State) and
Melanie Johnson (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State), Jonathan
Stopes-Roe and Eileen Lawrence, on behalf of the Department of Health,
Sir Robert Owen (Chairman of the Trustees) and Richard Vallance (Charles
Russell, Secretariat for the Trustees).
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Sir Robert Owen made the following points:-
–The scheme had been far more problematic than anticipated,
and had led to many problems. Future compensation schemes should
learn from these problems, which should also be taken into account
when deciding how to compensate the 251st victim onwards.
-The Scheme had been set up with the best of intentions and was
Claimant specific..
- vCJD has had a devastating impact on families.
- Some payments are comparatively straightforward, such as payment
of the Basic Sum, although issues can arise as to the appropriate
beneficiaries because the Trustees have discretion not to make
payment into the Estate. More problematic, however, is the claims
for "particular hardship" which are paid from the Discretionary
Fund.
- Difficulties also arise from the wide definition of Qualifier
which requires family members to be identified and contacted.
The size of some families was illustrated by reference to a family
tree of a particular family. The Trustees have to contact all
of the family members to ensure that the funds are apportioned
fairly and in accordance with the terms of the Trust Deed. For
example, in order to pay the £5,000/£10,000 for Experience
of the Family and £5,000 for mandatory care to the appropriate
family members, all the relevant family members and carers have
to be contacted to ascertain whether they should receive payment
and whether they wish to do so. There have been cases in the past
where family members have not provided details of other family
members who subsequently had a legitimate claim.
- The claims that require a family member to have suffered "particular
hardship" are extremely problematic, as they necessarily
require a comparison between the 'usual' or 'normal' level of
suffering and cases where this has been "particular",
i.e beyond the norm.
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- Dr
John Reid stated that he had not appreciated the problems that
had been incurred as a result of this scheme, and recognised that
these had led to considerable fees and were time consuming to
resolve. Sir Robert Owen confirmed that costs were high because
of the difficulty of the scheme. He confirmed that the Trustees
and Charles Russell are trying to limit costs, although this is
difficult in light of the complexity of the scheme and nature
of the claims
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Dr John Reid expressed concern that no claims had been paid in
full, and would like the claims to progress faster. Sir Robert
Owen explained that the great majority of claims to the Main Fund
and for care from the Discretionary Fund had been paid, and there
were currently only ten new cases that had not yet been put before
the Trustees. These were being worked on at present. It is only
the claims to the Discretionary Fund that require "particular
hardship" that have not yet been processed or considered
by the Trustees. As mentioned, the problem is identifying the
meaning of "particular", in circumstances in which all
family members have suffered enormously.
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- Sir
Robert Owen stated that the Trustees supported fully the request
by the families for additional funding to be provided for the
Discretionary Fund. Dr Reid stated that he was not inclined to
introduce additional money into the scheme, although he would
consider the possibility of transferring some funds from the Main
Fund to the Discretionary Fund. Sir Robert Owen stated that the
families did want more money to be available but if this was not
forthcoming, then based on the projections that had been prepared
the Trustees felt that £3m could be safely transferred from
the Main Fund to the Discretionary Fund without jeopardising future
payments from the Main Fund
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Sir Robert stated that it would be necessary to cap claims and
the Trustees would need to be cautious, even after the tran
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Representations were made by Sir Robert Owen in relation to compensating
care provided abroad in some circumstances, as families would
not have had the benefit of the Care Package. Dr Reid requested
a written submission from the Trustees.
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