The next government must provide injured workers with enhanced access to compensation, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) said as a government consultation, Accessing Compensation, closed today.

APIL urged the incoming government to ensure that plans laid down by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), to create an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO) and Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB), are followed.

In February, the DWP launched a consultation on creating the ELTO, which will manage an electronic database of employers’ liability insurance policies, and the ELIB, a compensation fund of last resort.

APIL president Muiris Lyons said: ‘All employees have the right to go to work and come home unharmed. But, when they are injured or made ill by their employers, they must be able to claim fair compensation for their injuries.

‘To do this, they need to be able to trace the insurers of their employers, but in too many cases, particularly when the employer has gone out of business, this cannot be done, either because policy information has not been properly preserved or because the current tracing system, administered by the [Association of British Insurers] just does not work.

‘We have a similar system in place for the millions of drivers on our roads. There is no excuse for failing to treat workers in the same way.

‘Many of the worst-affected people have asbestos-related diseases and die without receiving the compensation which could provide some comfort in their last months of life.’

Currently, people who cannot trace the insurer of their current or past employer cannot obtain compensation for workplace injuries. Insurers run a voluntary tracing service, but 3,210 people remained uncompensated in 2008, the DWP said.