Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter has joined forces with a national campaign group dedicated to fighting for the rights of injured people and bereaved families.
Mr Slaughter will host an event in the House of Commons for national not-for-profit group the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) to raise awareness of the need for victims of negligence to be at the heart of policy-making.
APIL has set out key reforms it wants the Government to introduce, including full and fair redress for survivors of child sexual abuse and sufferers of asbestos-related lung cancer.
Mr Slaughter said: “People who have been injured through no fault of their own are some of the most vulnerable people in society.
“They should be treated with compassion and their rights must not be eroded. They should be able to rely on the law to help them when they are at their lowest point.”
Among the proposed reforms, APIL wants the Government to overhaul the law on statutory bereavement damages in England and Wales. Currently, only a very short, prescribed list of relatives are eligible for bereavement damages when their loved ones are killed through negligence. The association also calls for the abolition of a three-year time limit imposed on child sexual abuse survivors to make a legal claim, as recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
“People who have been injured due to others’ negligence must be able to rely on the law to help them get their lives back on track,“ said APIL chief executive Mike Benner.
“But for some victims of negligence, the law falls woefully short,” he went on.
“We hope that this event will bring these issues to the attention of more parliamentarians, who will have a hand in building a brighter future for injured people,” he said.