Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Baker Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

We take this issue very seriously. The Treasury owns the money laundering regulations, but the FCA has a key role as a major supervisor, and we work very closely with the criminal enforcement agencies. Of course, those agencies are independent, but we are absolutely committed to clamping down on money laundering.

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

10. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to uplift former mineworkers’ pensions.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney) (Lab)]

20. What steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to uplift former mineworkers’ pensions.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones)]

This Government recognise the contributions that miners made to the prosperity of the nation and the challenging circumstances in which they worked. That is why the Government agreed to transfer the investment reserve fund to members of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, so that the mineworkers who powered our country receive a fairer pension.

[Richard Baker]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that ending the injustice of the mineworkers’ pension scheme is great news not only for the 849 former mineworkers in my constituency who will benefit, but for the economies of the local communities where they live, which were left behind by the previous Government? Will he and his colleagues in government continue to engage with the trustees of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme to ensure that, in the same way, the funds built up in that scheme are used for the benefit of its members?

[Darren Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his work on behalf of his constituents. He may know that, in the previous Parliament, I and colleagues worked on the mineworkers’ pension scheme through the Business and Trade Committee to lay the ground for the initiatives that this Government were quickly able to implement on coming into government. Unfortunately, that work had not yet been done for the British Coal staff superannuation scheme, which is why Ministers are meeting the scheme’s trustees to consider the options.