ONE of the country's leading legal experts on asbestos-related diseases has backed the Government's pledge to ensure faster compensation for mesothelioma victims and their families.

John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced that the Government would be looking into ways of speeding up the compensation process.

This would help relatives of up to 2,000 individuals a year who currently die from mesothelioma. The number of deaths from the deadly condition, which causes a malignant tumour in the lungs, is expected to rise to 2,500 a year when it peaks in 2015.

Many families in Swindon have received compensation, such as Rufina Hart of Covingham, who was awarded £250,000 earlier this year after her husband Keith, who died in 2002, contracted the disease after working as a handyman for a drug company.

Mr Hutton, who represents Barrow and Furness in Cumbria, said: "As an MP in a shipbuilding area, I have seen at first-hand the effects that exposure to asbestos can cause.

"Mesothelioma is a particularly unpleasant disease and the time between diagnosis and death is often tragically short.

"No amount of money will ever compensate individuals and families, but it is doubly important that the process for claiming compensation does not add to the distress experienced by individuals and their families.'' The Government is set to work with the Association of British Insurers, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and the Department for Constitutional Affairs to urgently identify ways to speed up the settlement of claims.

"Our aim is to ensure that sufferers of mesothelioma can receive compensation at the same time knowing that their families will be secure in the future," added Mr Hutton, who said he would report back on progress made before Parliament rises for the summer.

Brigitte Chandler, of Swindon law firm Charles, Lucas and Marshall solicitors, has been working on behalf of many mesothelioma sufferers in Swindon and she welcomed Mr Hutton's announcement.

"I think it is a good idea that the Government has got involved in this issue," she said.

"At the moment it can take a considerable amount of time before compensation is agreed and often sufferers do not get the opportunity to benefit from any claim.

"I have worked on some claims that have been dealt with in under a year, if the firm has admitted liability.

"But if the defendant does not admit liability it can become a very complex process and can take two or three years.

"Anything that can be done to speed up the process can only help matters."

Earlier this year, more than 100 Adver readers signed a British Lung Foundation charter calling for better treatment and protection from mesothelioma.

And in a separate poll, 80 per cent of our readers said the Government should do more to make the disease a national priority.