The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupation Safety and Health’s (APPGOSH) report has urged ministers to ban Cape from government contracts until it pays £10m towards asbestos cancer research
After years of campaigning for Cape and its parent company Altrad to pay £10m to Asthma + Lung UK for asbestos related cancer research, the Asbestos Victims Support Group Forum and their lawyer Harminder Bains gave evidence to the APPGOSH in March, with the parliamentary group agreeing with their calls that asbestos manufacturer Cape/Altrad should donate the £10m.
The APPGOSH has said it will be writing to the secretary of state for work and pensions, the secretary of state for education, and the minister for the cabinet office, urging them to consider its recommendations immediately.
Cape/Altrad should not receive “millions” in government contracts whilst the taxpayer foots medical bills, says Asbestos Victims Support Group Lawyer
Partner and joint head of the asbestos and industrial diseases department at Leigh Day Harminder Bains commented:
“Currently, it is the taxpayer who is having to fund the medical care which is provided to mesothelioma and other asbestos-related disease sufferers via the already under-resourced NHS. It is therefore not just and equitable for Cape/Altrad to continue to receive contracts worth millions of pounds from the government.
“In addition, the government needs to take into account the reports that Altrad’s President, Mohed Altrad, was found guilty of corruption, including fraud and bribery, in the French Courts and was fined and given an 18-month suspended sentence. The government needs to consider the Procurement Act 2023 which lists bribery as one of the grounds for mandatory exclusion from awards of government contracts.
“Mesothelioma is one of the most severe cancers and research into a cure has been underfunded to date and it will remain a major problem because asbestos is found in thousands of buildings throughout the UK.”
Asbestos’ impact will be felt for generations
The parliamentary group has also stated that the damage caused by Cape’s asbestos products “will continue for generations” and recommended that the government establishes a national strategy to remove asbestos from all public buildings.
The recommendations are made in the report which follows a hearing where the group examined Cape plc, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of asbestos products now owned by manufacturing giant Altrad, and its history as a company “implicated in Britain’s asbestos epidemic”.
The post Asbestos Victims Support Group Forum lawyer welcomes APPG report into asbestos manufacturer appeared first on Planning, Building & Construction Today.
