A government consultation on whether people with pleural plaques should be able to claim damages has been criticised by a leading insurance lawyer as threatening to undermine the ‘constitutional separation of the judiciary and executive’.

The government announced the consultation last week after the House of Lords ruled that pleural plaques – scarring of the membrane surrounding the lungs – are not in themselves damage and not actionable.

Pleural plaques do not cause symptoms but do signal the presence of asbestos fibres that could trigger life-threatening diseases. The Lords decision  last October overturned high court decisions from the 1980s allowing damages for negligent exposure to asbestos.

Forum of Insurance Lawyers president Henry Bermingham, a partner at Birmingham firm Berrymans Lace Mawer, said: ‘This is another example of the government interfering with a judgment it doesn’t like and, in the process, undermining the constitutional separation of judiciary and executive.’

Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health at the Association of British Insurers, said legislation was not the answer. ‘The way forward must be through education to allay the concerns of people with pleural plaques,’ he said.

He denied the condition developed into serious asbestos-related diseases.

However, Breda Cronin, personal injury associate at nationwide firm Simpson Millar, called on Westminster to follow the Scottish Executive’s lead and introduce a bill to compensate people with pleural plaques or other symptom-less asbestos-related conditions.

She said: ‘These claimants, through no fault of their own, have scarring in their lungs and are living with the high probability of developing fatal diseases.’

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) described the House of Lords ruling as ‘a devastating blow for pleural plaques victims’. APIL chief executive Denise Kitchener said: ‘While the Lords’ decision was a financial victory for the insurance industry, it was at the expense of all those victims who had faith in our justice system.’