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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that family members of people who have underlying industrial diseases, but who die from covid-19, are allowed to put in posthumous claims to the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme.

Under the terms of the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme (CIPCS), formerly the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme, there is provision for posthumous claims to be made. The criteria for a posthumous claim are:

• Employment with British Coal (which extends to employment with contractors or in a licensed mine); and
• 10 years or more of employment in the coal mining industry; and
• Having been in receipt of Industrial Injuries Disablement (IIDB) for Pneumoconiosis (Prescribed Disease D1 (PD D1)) or one of the other qualifying diseases, which does not include Covid-19; or
• Pneumoconiosis or one of the other qualifying disease, which does not include Covid-19 appearing on the Death Certificate.

Where a former miner was not in receipt of IIDB during life a request can be made, within a year of their death, to the DWP for a retrospective assessment. In instances in which there was no IIDB assessment during life or a retrospective request either is not possible or successful, a claim can be made if pneumoconiosis appears on the Death Certificate.