Minutes

19th July 2002 - Sixth Meeting

The previous meeting Minutes were agreed
The rate of interest on the bank accounts holding the Trust funds is 3.85%
There are now 124 victims on the First Schedule to the Trust Deed
An article will be prepared for the Law Society Gazette and the Journal of the Law Society (Scotland) to increase awareness of the scheme amongst the legal profession. An article has been submitted to the Associatation of British Neurologists' Newsletter
The recent CJD Surveillance Unit Report was considered, and recent press articles
A request will be made to the Secretary of State for interim payments to require only three signatures, as obtaining five delays payments and may be difficult during the holiday period.
The Trustee who first considered a particular claim would also be responsible for checking and approving amendments.
Claims to date had been dealt with as far as possible in chronological order, and although claims with a dependancy element had not yet been considered, these would also be dealt with in the same way. A number of the dependancy claims will be considered at the next meeting at the end of September.
A number of technical and practical difficulties relating to the interpretation of the Trust Deed were discussed, and Sir Robert Owen will write to the Department of Health in respect of these.
As a general principle, the Trustees would make a deduction of 25% to claims for regular household expenses to take account of the expenses that would have been incurred in any event. This approach is consistent with that followed in the Courts.
Where the basic sum of £5,000 is claimed for an identifiable psychiatric injury, the Trustees will require confirmation of the diagnosis from a GP. A psychiatric report should be obtained in claims where further sums are requested for particular financial and emotional hardship as a result of the psychatric condition. It would be difficult for the Trustees otherwise to identify the boundary between grief and an actual psychiatric condition.
12 claims were considered.
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