The British Safety Council has welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that employer insurance companies are liable in asbestos cases.

The court judgment was published on 28 March, upholding appeals from Unite, employers and others concerning the liability of insurers to employers where their employees have contracted mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos.

One of the issues on which the appeal was made to the Supreme Court was when mesothelioma was “sustained” or “contracted” – when the employee was wrongfully exposed to asbestos or when the disease actually occurs in the employee.

Trade unions argued that had it not been for the Supreme Court ruling, many thousands of workers exposed to mesothelioma with fatal consequences would not be compensated for the loss they, or their families, had suffered.

“This issue, that is when the liability arose, is much more than a moot point given that more than 3,000 lives are lost to mesothelioma in the UK each year," said Stone. "We have yet to see the peak of mesothelioma deaths, which is likely to be around 2016.

“It is right that in a civilised society, those who are exposed to work-related diseases are properly compensated for the damage and loss they have suffered. The legacy of killer asbestos is still tragically with us today. This decision recognises where liability properly lies.”