The mineworker’s pension scheme is one of the largest pension funds in the UK. It has remained resilient, overcoming to 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 without requiring government support.

The Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee set out recommendations that were fair to miners and protects the taxpayer. Allowing miners and their widows to retain 100% of surplus funds would help uplift the incomes and living standards/

The Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee were clear in 2021:

• The Government has profited greatly from the scheme.

• The Government should relinquish its entitlement to the investment reserve and transfer the £1.2 billion fund to provide an immediate cash uplift to former miners.

• The Government was “negligent not to take actuarial advice” during the 1994 negotiations when agreeing to the 50:50 split.

Since 1994, thousands of miners have sadly passed away many through the legacy of industrial disease, all while the Government has pocketed £4.8 billion of the miners’ money.

Our campaign will not stop until we secure fairness and justice for our retired miners and their widows, who deserve dignity in retirement.

I look forward to meeting the Minister and making the case once again for the reform of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme.