Written question asked by Mark Todd (Labour) on Tuesday, 27 March 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 April 2001. It was answered by Lord Hain (Labour) on Monday, 9 April 2001 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what assessment he has made of the performance of the contractor managing British Coal's employment records in relation to mineworkers' compensation claims.

Answer: Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the performance of the contractor managing British Coal's employment records in relation to mineworkers compensation claims. [156224] Mr. Hain: The Department continually monitors the performance of Hays Information Management, the company contracted to provide copies of miners' employment records. Getting copies of employment records has proved difficult because British Coal records are stored on very antiquated microfiche and in paper systems. The volumes of records returned have been less than planned and the Department therefore embarked on two major projects to scan the earnings records from microfiche into a database and to scan the whole of the employment records pack. Unfortunately, there have been problems with scanning but these have now been addressed and the volume of records scanned is rising. Hays will provide an increased level of photocopied records until scanned records hit their required targets.

Secondary information