MOVES to overturn a Law Lords ruling on the issue of compensation for sufferers of an industrial lung disease cleared their first Commons hurdle today.

A Bill tabled by Labour backbencher Andrew Dismore that would recognise pleural plaques as a compensatable illness was given an unopposed second reading.

The condition - a scarring of the lungs, caused by inhaling asbestos fibres - is common in areas such as the North-East, because ofthe region's history of shipbuilding and other heavy industry.

Sufferers of the condition were denied compensation following a House of Lords ruling in 2007, and the Hendon MP wants ''to turn back the law to what we all thought it was''.

Justice Minister David Hanson said he had concerns with some aspects of the Bill but did not block it so that the issues could be explored in committee.

The Tories also expressed reservations but allowed the Bill to progress.

The Government launched a consultation paper on the pleural plaques rulings last July following unrest from MPs and campaigners, and in February Prime Minister Gordon Brown said an announcement would be made ''very soon''.

Mr Dismore told MPs his Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) Bill would return the law to a previous position allowing sufferers of pleural plaques who have not developed other asbestos-related diseases to claim compensation.

He said it was a ''serious issue affecting a lot of people'' and that doing nothing was not an option.

Mr Dismore said: ''What we are talking about here is not just compassion for people who are suffering from pleural plaques and the psychological consequences that it causes which are equally bad.

''What we are simply asking for here is justice for people who have been exposed to asbestos during the course of their employment through no fault of their own to enable them to recover the compensation to which they are justly entitled.''

Mr Hanson said the Government was looking at the issue ''extremely seriously'' in its consultation paper.

He said ministers had concerns with some aspects of the Bill but did not want to block its second reading.

''Although we have some reservations, I'm very happy to allow the second reading and for these issues to be explored in committee,'' he said.

Tory spokeswoman Eleanor Laing said her party had ''compassion and sympathy'' with people suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

But she said medical opinion suggested pleural plaques did not lead to more serious diseases or turn malignant by themselves, and that Mr Dismore was seeking to include the psychological effects.

''So the issue is whether the development of pleural plaques does in fact amount to an actionable injury,'' Mrs Laing said.

''The point which is difficult here is that in this Bill, which is a very narrow Bill about a specific issue, the principle of the way in which personal injury law has developed in this country would be changed considerably.''