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In 1999 the Department entered into Claims Handling Agreements for processing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Vibration White Finger (VWF) claims. These original agreements are at documents A and B.
Over time the CHA's have evolved and changed. The current versions of the CHA's are at documents C and D. The current CHA's are the ones the parties are working to though there are elements of the CHA that are at issue between the parties and these are shown in square brackets and in bold text.
Having agreed CHA's with the main claimants' representatives, further CHA's were entered into which mirror the compensation payments but which differ in process from the main CHA's. These CHA's are with the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) (see documents E and F) and for Australian and New Zealand resident claimants (see document G). There is no separate overseas CHA for VWF but there is an overseas protocol (see document H).
In order to deliver compensation to sick miners in Scotland, Scottish CHA's were entered into to reflect the differences between English and Scottish law and to provide compensation in line with that which Scottish courts would award. The original CHA agreement for COPD is at document I and the original CHA for VWF is at document K. The Scottish CHAs are currently being updated and it is hoped they will be available soon.
More recently the protocols for handling COPD claims in cases where the miner is or was resident outside the UK, but excluding Australia and New Zealand, have been agreed. The protocol for live claimants is at document M and the protocol for deceased claimants is at document N.
