Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made in discussions between the Government, the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme Trustees, Trade Union representatives and others on the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme surplus.

I met the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS) Trustees recently to discuss options for the future of the Scheme. As a result of that discussion, I have asked BEIS officials to work with the Trustees to explore options for revising the scheme to the benefit of all parties.

The MPS has worked well for all parties and credit must go to the Trustees for their excellent investment strategy and administration of the Scheme. As Trustees have acknowledged, the Government guarantee has enabled an investment strategy that has resulted in scheme members receiving payments 33% higher than they would have been had they received only their actual earned pension up to privatisation.

The most recent valuation has just been completed. Positive results mean that scheme members will receive an additional 4.2% of the guaranteed pension as bonuses for each of the next 6 years. More information is available here: https://www.mps-pension.org.uk/news/2018/07/results-of-the-2017-valuation.