The Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1986 (“the Prescribed Diseases Regulations”) and the Social Security (Adjudication) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (“the Adjudication Regulations”) by—

• providing that entitlement may arise from the first day a person suffers from a loss of faculty due to diffuse mesothelioma (regulation 2(3));

• amending the occupational prescription in respect of disease number D3 (diffuse mesothelioma) to include exposure to asbestos, asbestos dust and admixtures of asbestos at levels above those found in the environment at large (regulation 2(4)(a));

• changing the description of diseases D8 (primary carcinoma of the lung) and D9 (bilateral diffuse pleural thickening) so as to require either unilateral or bilateral diffuse pleural thickening extending to a defined thickness and measured in a specified manner in either or both lungs (regulation 2(4)(b) and (c));

• changing the description of disease D12 (chronic bronchitis and emphysema) to remove the requirement for evidence of an X-ray and amending the occupational prescription to include periods of incapacity while engaged in the occupation of working underground in a coal mine in the specified period of service (regulation 2(4)(d));

• modifying the provisions for the reference of diagnosis, recrudescence and disablement questions to an adjudicating medical authority and for the determination of those questions (regulation 3(3) and (4));

• making consequential and drafting amendments (regulations 2(2) and 3(2));

• making a consequential revocation (regulation 4).