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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list for each year from 1979 to 1997 what sums of compensation have been (a) paid to individual coal miners as a result of pit closures and (b) invested in regions of the United Kingdom to compensate for the closure of coal mines. [57329] Mr. Battle: The information is as follows: (a) The Department does not have information on total compensation paid to individual coal miners solely as a result of pit closures initiated by the previous Government. The table sets out the restructuring costs of British Coal Corporation since 1979. In addition, the Government made payments to individual mineworkers under the Redundant Mineworkers Payments Scheme (RMPS) which was introduced in 1967. This Scheme closed to new entrants after March 1987, but payments continue until the last beneficiary reaches the age of 65 in 2002. £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Financial years British Coal Corporation exceptional RMPS restructuring costs{1} 1979-80 76 15 1980-81 108 15 1981-82 181 48 1982-83 183 80 1983-84 344 190 1984-85 242 200 1985-86 691 563 1986-87 798 610 1987-88 632 295 1988-89 400 168 1989-90 881 126 1990-91 163 93 1991-92 525 61 1992-93 767 43 1993-94 481 33 1994-95 270 29 1995-96 8 23 1996-97 0 20 1997-98 0 12 Total 6,750 2.624 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} British Coal Corporation Annual Report and Accounts (various) (b) The Department does not collect information on amounts invested in regions of the United Kingdom solely as a result of pit closures. The Coalfield closures programme in 1992 was expected to cost the Government £1 billion in redundancy payments and measures to help communities affected, and in 1993 the previous Government committed £200 million in regeneration funding. However, this sum fell below what was needed. This Government set up the Coalfields Task Force to investigate how the Government can best help regenerate the Coalfields Communities and draw together support offered to them. We will shortly be reporting on the implementation of the Task Force's recommendations.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

319 c223-4W; 57329

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Compensation Closures Coal British Coal Corporation Government assistance Redundancy pay Mining Regional assistance Coalfields Task Force Redundant mineworks payments scheme

Contains statistics

Yes