Member

On the question of the uprating, as the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, knows from her time in government, Governments have traditionally gone with the conventional uprating figures, which is CPI. Inevitably that means that upratings for some years are higher than others. The benefit is that each figure compounds the last, so if it has been very high when inflation has been very high, then even a smaller increase is an increase on that higher base. But the Government keep this under review, and I take the point that has been made. The most important thing, particularly for the 2008 scheme, is making sure that the money gets out the door as fast as possible, because for the people suffering from mesothelioma, unfortunately this is not about the long-term costs of living but about how we get as much money as possible to help them in the sadly small amount of time that they have left.