Oral Answers to Questions

Elaine Stewart Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Elaine Stewart (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

11. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to the mineworkers’ pension scheme on the living standards of the recipients of that pension.

[The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)]

This Labour Government have ended the historic injustice of the mineworkers’ pension scheme. At the end of November last year, the first uprated payments for the pension scheme landed for over 100,000 miners and their families. That is an average increase of 32% on their monthly payments, or an average additional £28 a week.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for his concern for his constituents who are in the BCSSS. I am very receptive to the calls from BCSSS trustees. I wrote to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the end of last year to begin discussions. We have received a positive response from him, and we are now taking the next steps to move this process forward.

[Elaine Stewart]

We are only partway there on the pension injustice for miners. The British Coal staff superannuation scheme has around 40,000 members who formerly worked in mining industries, including a number of my constituents. They include many women who were among the lowest paid in the coal industry—my own mum worked in the pit canteen. Can I assure my constituents enrolled in the BCSSS that transferring the £2.3 billion investment reserves to its members is a priority for this Government?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is right to point out that there are about 40,000 people in this scheme. About 5,000 of them are women, unlike the mineworkers’ pension scheme, of which the vast majority of members are men. The two schemes are different and operate in a different way, because in 2015 the BCSSS had run two deficits and was at risk, so there had to be an intervention from Government. The two schemes operate differently and have to be looked at differently. The Government Actuary’s Department team is working its way through the mineworkers’ pension process, and we are now working with officials on this issue. I am meeting officials later today to talk about it more to see what we need to do. I stress that this is very complex—we are talking about billions of pounds-worth of assets—but we are absolutely receptive to calls from the trustees, and I will meet with them again soon.