UK Parliament Petition: Implement BEIS Select Committee recommendation on Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme

Head Office Circular: NP/174/21
24 May 2021

To: The Secretary
ALL BRANCHES
REGIONAL COUNCILS

Dear Colleague

UK Parliament Petition: Implement BEIS Select Committee recommendation on Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme

A petition has been tabled on the UK Parliament website, which calls on the Government to implement a recommendation from the BEIS Select Committee regarding the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme. Specifically, the petition is calling for the Scheme, set up in 1994 following the privatisation of the coal industry, to be reformed by the Government so that pensioners receive an immediate uplift, and is revised so that the Government is only entitled to a share of surpluses if the Scheme falls into deficit, and the Government has to provide funds.

As it stands, consecutive Governments have taken financial resources out of the Scheme and put them into the Treasury. The years since the Scheme was set up have shown that the agreement was over generous towards the Government, which has received £4bn from the scheme, but has made no contribution to it since 1994. As the BEIS Select Committee noted, the current arrangements ‘rob beneficiaries of the financial security they have rightfully earned’.

You can access the petition here - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/584664

The petition currently has around 3600 signatures, and if it reaches 10,000, the Government will respond. The deadline for reaching this is 6 November 2021.

Members are asked to sign and share this important petition.

Yours sincerely

Michael Lynch
General Secretary