Catalogue description Ministry of National Insurance and successors: Industrial Diseases, Registered Files (ID series)

The National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946 provided insurance cover for persons working for an employer under a contract of service against personal injury caused by accidents arising out of and in the course of insurable employment and against certain prescribed diseases due to the nature of the person's employment. The Act, which superseded the Workmen's Compensation Acts 1925-1945 under which Acts liability for the payment of compensation rested upon the employer, introduced a new approach in as much as the payment of monetary benefit was to be based on a medically assessed loss of faculty resulting from the industrial accident or disease and not upon a comparative loss of earnings which was the basis of assessment of compensation under the superseded Acts.

The list of prescribed diseases for which benefit was payable under the Act reproduced substantially the diseases for which compensation was available under the Workmen's Compensation Acts but action was taken to revise and extend the area covered.

The Act also introduced a new range of insurance benefits paid directly to the employee by the Ministry of National Insurance as part of an integrated social insurance system distinct from any employer's liability.

The Industrial Injuries Fund was established under the Act to finance the new scheme, contributions to which were made by employers, employed persons and the Exchequer.