Section 31 Injury, Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001

Part 1 - Section 30 and Schedule 2 IPRC Act

10. Section 30, IPRC Act provides:

"30 Personal injury caused by work-related gradual process, disease, or infection

(1) Personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection means personal injury -

(a) suffered by a person; and

(b) caused by a gradual process, disease, or infection, and

(c) caused in the circumstances described in subsection (2).

(2) The circumstances are:

(a) the person-

(i) performs an employment task that has a particular property or characteristic; or

(ii) is employed in an environment that has a particular property or characteristic; and

(b) the particular property or characteristic-

(i) causes, or contributes to the cause of, the personal injury; and

(ii) is not found to any material extent in the non-employment activities or environment of the person; and

(iii) may or may not be present throughout the whole of the person's employment; and

(c) the risk of suffering the personal injury-

(i) is significantly greater for persons who perform the employment task than for persons who do not perform it; or

(ii) is significantly greater for persons who are employed in that type of environment than for persons who are not.

(3) Personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection includes personal injury that is of a type described in Schedule 2 that is suffered by a person who is or has been in employment involving exposure to agents, dusts, compounds, substances, radiation, or things (as the case may be) described in that schedule in relation to that type of personal injury.

(4) Personal injury of a type described in subsection (3) does not require an assessment of causation under subsection (1)(b) or (c).

(5) Personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection does not include -

(a) personal injury related to non physical stress; or

(b) any degree of deafness for which compensation has been paid under the Workers' Compensation Act 1956.

(6) Subsection (7) applies if, before 1 April 1974, the person -

(a) performed an employment task that had a particular property or characteristic; or

(b) was employed in an environment that had a particular property or characteristic.

(7) The circumstances referred to in subsection (6) do not prevent the person's personal injury from being personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection, but he or she does not have cover for it if section 24 or section 361 applies to him or her."

11. Schedule 2 IPRC Act provides:

" Occupational Diseases

1 Pneumoconioses caused by sclerogenetic mineral dust (silicosis, anthraco-silicosis, asbestosis) and silico-tuberculosis, provided that silicosis is an essential factor in causing the resultant incapacity and death.

2 Lung cancer or mesothelioma diagnosed as caused by asbestos.

3 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by beryllium or its toxic compounds.

4 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by phosphorus or its toxic compounds.

5 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by chrome or its toxic compounds.

6 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by manganese or its toxic compounds.

7 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by arsenic or its toxic compounds.

8 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by mercury or its toxic compounds.

9 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by lead or its toxic compounds.

10 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by carbon bisulfide.

11 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by the toxic halogen derivatives of hydrocarbons of the aliphatic series.

12 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by benzene or its toxic homologues.

13 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by nitro- and amido-toxic derivatives of benzene or its homologues.

14 Diseases of a type generally accepted by the medical profession as caused by ionising radiations.

15 Primary epitheliomatous cancer of the skin diagnosed as caused by tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral oil, anthracene, or the compounds, products or residues of these substances.

16 Anthrax infection.

17 Leptospirosis diagnosed as caused by working with animals or their carcasses."

12. The following diagram explains the core provisions of s.30:

Click image to see larger copy

13. It will be immediately apparent that the labyrinth of tests imposed by s.30 are complex and place burdens upon claimants which in many cases are difficult to surmount. Section 30 (and its earlier manifestations) has been the subject of numerous review and appellate court decisions. Those decisions illustrate the difficulties associated with answering the multiple questions posed by s.30. In Part IV of this report the advisory panel explains in detail its concerns about s.30 of the IPRC Act. Before considering those concerns it is important to appreciate how s.30 evolved against the background of the recommendations and principles enunciated in the Woodhouse Report.

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