The Council currently consists of 16 members appointed by the Secretary of State. There are seven independent members made up of specialists in occupational medicine, epidemiology, toxicology and lawyers. There are four members representing employers and four representing employees.
Legislation requires an equal number of representatives from employers and employees
The statutory provisions governing the Council's work are set out in Section 171 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. The Council has three roles:
The Council is a non-departmental public body and has no power or authority to become involved in individual cases or in the decision-making process.
The first Workmen's Compensation Act passed in 1897 made no provision for industrial diseases. Subsequently, a Departmental committee identified a need for additional statutory provision and a Schedule was added to the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1906, listing industrial diseases for which compensation was available. Initially only six diseases were prescribed (Anthrax; Poisoning by lead, mercury, phosphorus, arsenic; Ancylostomiasis) in respect of specific work processes. The 1906 Act also empowered the Home Secretary to add other diseases to the Schedule, though the criteria to be applied in doing so were not specified.
The Samuel Committee was appointed to inquire into this and set out to identify diseases currently not covered by the Act which, firstly, caused incapacity for more than one week, and, secondly, were so specific to the given employment that causation could be established in each individual case. Using these criteria the Committee recommended that eighteen diseases should be added to the Schedule. Further diseases were added to the schedule later, but there were no significant changes to the scheme until the setting up of the Welfare State after the Second World War. By 1948, compensation was available for 41 diseases.
The industrial Injuries Advisory Council was established under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946. Under this Act, which came into effect on 4 July 1948, a new industrial injuries scheme was established, financed by contributions from employers, employees and the Exchequer. The State, through the scheme, assumed direct responsibility for paying no-fault compensation for injury and diseases. The Council's terms of reference, set down in the Act, were to advise the Minister on proposals to make regulations under the Act and to advise and consider such questions relating to the Act that the Minister might, from time to time, refer.
The 1946 Act also contained provisions for the prescription of diseases (section 55 of the 1946 Act, now section 76(2) of the Social Security Act 1975). The Minister could prescribe a disease if he was satisfied that it ought to be treated as a risk of occupation and not as a risk common to the general population; and that the attribution of individual cases to the nature of the occupation could be established or presumed with reasonable certainty. An employee disabled by a prescribed disease would have a right to claim benefit under the Act.
In 1947, the Government appointed the Dale Committee. Part of its brief was to advise on the principles governing the selection of diseases for insurance under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, having regard to the extended system of insurance which was about to be set up by the National Insurance Act 1948 and any other relevant considerations. The advice of the Dale Committee included proposals that a small specialised standing committee should be appointed by the Minister to consider the prescription of diseases specifically referred to it, to review periodically the Schedule of prescribed diseases and to recommend subjects on which more research was needed. The Minister concluded that this was a suitable task for a newly established Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. In 1982 the Government widened the Council's terms of reference, allowing it to advise the Secretary of State on any matter relating to the Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit or its administration.
The conditions which must be satisfied before a disease may be prescribed in relation to any employed earners are set out in section 108(2) of the Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (formerly section 76(2) of the Social Security Act 1975). This requires that the Secretary of State for Department for Work and Pensions should be satisfied that the disease:
In other words, a disease can only be prescribed if the risk to workers in a certain occupation is substantially greater than the risk to the general population, and the link between the disease and the occupation can be established in each individual case or presumed with reasonable certainty.
In diseases which occur in the general population (e.g. chronic bronchitis and emphysema) there may be no difference in the pathology or clinical features to distinguish an occupational from a non-occupational cause. In these circumstances, in order to recommend prescription, IIAC looks for consistent evidence that the risk of developing the disease is more than doubled in a given occupation.
The Government and IIAC rely on research carried out independently and published in the medical and scientific literature. IIAC does not have a research budget to fund scientific studies. When IIAC decides to investigate a particular area its usual practice is to ask other bodies and interested parties to submit any relevant research in that field. IIAC has a sub-committee, the Research Working Group, which meets independently of the full council a minimum of four times a year, and the secretariat has a research librarian to monitor the scientific literature to keep IIAC up to date with developments in relevant research.