(1 day, 19 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
Madam Deputy Speaker, before I start I want to say something about today’s date. Sixty years ago, a colliery spoil tip gave way above the village of Aberfan and slid down on to Pantglas junior school. One hundred and sixteen children and 28 adults were killed. Anyone who grew up in a coalfield community knows the name Aberfan. It is part of our shared history, and the people of that village have carried it every day since. I know that the whole House will have this in their thoughts today.
I am grateful for the chance to raise an issue that matters a great deal to people in Mansfield, across Nottinghamshire and in former coalfields right across the country: the pensions of the men and women who worked in our pits, and whether we are finally going to give them everything that they are owed.
Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Steve Yemm
I will give way, and I am going to take as many interventions as possible, but I would ask Members to be brief please.
Lee Pitcher
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. I had one of those dreaded calls this week from a family member to say that a resident of mine had passed away without getting justice. These people gave blood, sweat and tears for our country. Is it not time that they got justice?
Steve Yemm
I certainly agree with my hon. Friend. It is long overdue. For years, a group of campaigners from Nottinghamshire and right across the country refused to let this issue go.
Imogen Walker (Hamilton and Clyde Valley) (Lab)
Will my hon. Friend join me in acknowledging the similar work of campaigners in Hamilton and Clyde Valley who have worked so hard, diligently and steadfastly on this matter?
Steve Yemm
I absolutely agree. There are too many people to thank and mention individually, but one of the campaigners—Mick Newton—a friend of mine for over 40 years, is here in the Gallery watching the debate tonight. Some of the campaigners are, sadly, no longer with us. I hope that their families know that their work is being recognised in the House tonight.
Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)
While Nottingham born and bred, I have lived in Derbyshire for 20 years and am proud to represent South Derbyshire. Many ex-miners who I have met in this place, in South Derbyshire and in Derbyshire more broadly would like to thank you for your leadership on this matter in our neck of the woods.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
Order. I do not require to be thanked, because I am not speaking in the debate.
Steve Yemm
I thank my hon. Friend for that recognition. It is important that we recognise those campaigners who are still fighting. I have to say this to every one of them: you have made a difference and a lot of what I am about to describe would not have happened without you.
Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that for former mineworkers and their families in Sherwood Forest, these pensions are deferred wages earned through years of hard and dangerous work, and that, with many members now facing ill health, there is no time to waste? Will he join me in urging the Government to use the Budget to secure a fair agreement on surpluses and ensure that bonus pensions are protected and rise with inflation?
Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)
I know that my hon. Friend just said there are too many people to mention by name and how sad it is that we have lost so many of the campaigners, but would he like to join me in celebrating the work of Tommy Christopher, who did so much to lead the campaign, and his nephew John—I have the pleasure of calling him a constituent—who is now chairing the campaign? Without them, we would not have got as far as we have. Will he join me in thanking them?
Steve Yemm
I join my hon. Friend in thanking those he mentioned.
In Mansfield and across the rest of my constituency, whole communities were built around the pits. My constituents’ fathers and grandfathers went underground—and plenty of them went underground themselves. They kept the lights on and the factories running for this country. It was hard, dangerous work, and many of them are still living with what it did to their health. The least we owe them is a decent pension. For a long time, they did not get that.
When British Coal was privatised in 1994, the Government of the day agreed to guarantee the mineworkers’ pension scheme and the British Coal staff superannuation scheme. In return, the Treasury took a share of the surpluses. Over the years that followed, billions of pounds went into the Treasury while a lot of former miners and their widows got by on fairly modest pensions. People in our communities never thought that was fair, and they were right. I am proud that this Labour Government have started to put it right.
Elaine Stewart (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)
On 2 November, I will be meeting MPS members in Cumnock town hall. I encourage colleagues to attend local meetings. The progress so far on mineworkers’ pensions is thanks to this Labour Government, and any further progress will be from Labour Members on these Benches. Does my hon. Friend agree that our presence at those meetings as elected Members sends an important signal?
Steve Yemm
It is certainly important to raise those meetings and to have that conversation with members and trustees as frequently as possible.
One of the first big decisions that this Government took was to hand the £1.5 billion investment reserve of the mineworkers’ pension scheme back to its members. That meant a 32% increase in their pensions. Last year, the Government did the same for the British Coal staff scheme, transferring the £2.3 billion reserve. That is the best part of £4 billion back where it belongs, and thousands of families in my constituency have felt that difference.
What is left is the question of surpluses: what happens to the money that builds up in these schemes in the future and the money that is sitting in them right now? The trustees of both schemes have put forward proposals and I think they are sensible. The mineworkers’ pension scheme trustees have asked for three things: first, that around £1 billion of surplus that is locked up in the scheme is used to give members a new bonus pension now; secondly, that 100% of future surpluses will go to improving members’ pensions; and thirdly, that the bonus pensions awarded in 2024 are protected so they cannot be taken away
Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for his leadership in this campaign. The three things as outlined are no more than what our miners deserve. Just a few weeks ago, I went to an event celebrating 40 years since Whitwick colliery closed. I can feel in the community, every time I go to see them, just how much they need the money in their pockets as quickly as possible, so that they get to live out the rest of their lives with the funds that they have so rightly earned.
Steve Yemm
My hon. Friend raises such an important point about the urgency of this question. The third point that I raised really matters to people in my constituency. Members of the British Coal staff scheme have bonus pensions that are protected; members of the mineworkers’ scheme do not. I do not think that anybody could explain to a retired miner in Mansfield why his bonus should be less secure than the one paid to someone he worked alongside at the same colliery. We should fix that.
The British Coal staff scheme’s trustees have made similar proposals, such as clear valuations showing whether the scheme is in surplus or deficit. I want to be clear about one thing: neither set of trustees is asking for the Government guarantee to be removed. Nobody wants to put pensioners’ security at risk and nobody is suggesting the schemes pay out money they might need to meet their commitments. We cannot, however, as my hon. Friend the Member for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) pointed out, keep telling people in their 80s that fairness is coming at some point in future.
Dr Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent work. It was my privilege five years ago at Labour conference to second the National Union of Mineworkers’ motion on this matter. Five years on, many of the miners I represent are still waiting to see some of these things come to fruition and, sadly, any members of my family who worked in the pits are no longer with us. He mentioned people in their 80s, so will he join me in urging the Government to take this action as swiftly as possible? Does he also share my disappointment that there is nobody on the Opposition Benches? We on the Government Benches cannot be the only people who represent mineworkers.
Steve Yemm
I welcome my hon. Friend’s comments and I share that disappointment. I have also to recollect that at the general election in 2019, Boris Johnson stood on the town hall steps in my constituency and committed to putting this right. Those on the Conservative Benches spent five years doing nothing for mineworkers.
There is an economic point too. When we increase the pensions, that money gets spent in our constituencies, in communities that have had decades of decline since collieries closed, and that matters. I have had very good discussions with Ministers and with the trustees of both schemes and I know that a lot of work is ongoing. The Budget is next Wednesday, so I want to put four questions to the Minister.
Josh Newbury
I thank my hon. Friend. He and I both represent thousands of MPS and BCSSS members in our two constituencies alone who, alongside those who have sadly passed away before seeing that full justice, have been fighting this battle for years and years. Does my hon. Friend agree that with a coalfield Prime Minister and a coalfield Chancellor, next week’s Budget is the time to do right by them once and for all?
Steve Yemm
Of course, I agree with my hon. Friend; it is very timely indeed.
Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)
I compliment my hon. Friend on his excellent presentation of the arguments. Indeed, all the interventions have been absolutely to the point. I am the son and grandson of miners. Sadly, my father passed away and my mother, a widow, passed away before she received the benefits of last year’s increases. I am directing my remarks to those on the Treasury Bench when I say that this country owes a debt of honour to the miners who made sacrifices. It is the anniversary of Aberfan, and we have just marked the anniversary of the terrible disaster at Easington colliery in my constituency, where 83 men were killed. There was a price to be paid by those miners and those communities, and that historical debt can be repaid in part by the Chancellor in the Budget next week. I beseech the Minister to take that message back.
Steve Yemm
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments and for his magnificent leadership on this issue over many years.
I shall return to my questions for the Minister. First, I am curious to know whether the Government will commit to resolving the surplus sharing for both schemes. Secondly, will he confirm that both sets of trustees’ proposals, including protecting the mineworkers’ 2024 bonus pensions and using the undistributed surpluses, are being considered by the Treasury? Thirdly, will the Government work with the trustees to ensure that genuinely available surpluses can be paid out as they arise, rather than have elderly pensioners waiting years for the next valuation? Fourthly, will the Government work with the trustees to look at the long-term future of both schemes to ensure that they keep serving their members as well as possible as the schemes get older?
For mining communities, this has never been purely about money. It is about whether this country respects the people who did the hardest jobs and empowered everything else in the economy. People in Mansfield and in all our communities have heard a lot of promises over the years. This Government have kept more promises on mineworkers’ pensions than any that went before them, and all of us on the Labour Benches should be genuinely proud of that, but we should not stop short at this moment. We have given back the reserves. Now let us sort out the surpluses, while the men and women who earned these pensions are still here to enjoy them. After more than 30 years, they have waited long enough, and I hope that the Minister can give them some hope tonight.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) for securing this debate, for his leadership on behalf of miners and also for taking the time to recognise and remember today’s anniversary. The poet Ron Cook described Aberfan as the day
“when the world stood still and the mountain moved”.
Aberfan was one of those tragedies that so overwhelming in its injustice that it is painful to think about, but that is precisely why it is essential to remember.
My hon. Friend’s speech also brought to mind a story I read of the Victoria colliery disaster in my own constituency, where 63 men and boys were killed. The bodies were laid out in the churchyard of St John’s church in Barrhead, where the local women faced the unimaginable horror of having to identify the remains not just of a husband but of a son. I will come to what miners are owed in a moment, but it is right that we recognise at the start of this debate that those debts cannot be repaid by anyone. My hon. Friend says that this is not about money, but as we discuss money and pension schemes and their distribution, we remember that, my God, the miners earned every penny of it.
As my hon. Friend will know well, the British Coal staff superannuation scheme dates back to 1946 and the mineworkers’ pension scheme to 1952. When the British Coal Board was privatised in 1994, the schemes were closed to new entrants and the remaining employees were given the right to participate in successor schemes. The Government of the day gave the mineworkers a guarantee: the value of the fund would not decrease—this would ensure that pensions would continue to be paid—and the Government would take half of any surplus from the investment. The other half could be used to improve benefits through bonus pensions. For the miners’ scheme, this surplus sharing arrangement has continued, although this Government have not taken any money from the scheme since we came to power in 2024. For the British Coal staff scheme, the surplus sharing arrangement was ended in 2015, and future benefits were fixed, ensuring that pensions could be paid. The aim is to return the reserve to Government in 2033.
Since the 2015 changes, the scheme’s investments have performed well, building up a reserve of £2.3 billion. I join hon. Members in paying tribute to the campaigners who, all the way through this, have spoken up for miners, ensuring that they get what they deserve. Today, there remain almost 150,000 members of the two schemes, the vast majority of whom are receiving their pension. Five thousand of them are in my hon. Friend’s constituency, and 37,000 are across the east midlands. The average age of members across the two schemes is 76, as hon. Members have said. The group includes 30,000 widows, with an average age of 84.
We owe former mining communities a debt of gratitude for their contribution to national prosperity, and we must acknowledge and recognise the hard work and sacrifice of coalminers, who powered this country for decades.
Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington) (Lab)
I must declare an interest: I am a member of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, and a former miner—probably the only one in the Commons at this moment in time. We must recognise that the Labour party had in its manifesto in 2017, 2019 and 2024 that it would seek justice for the mineworkers in the pension scheme. It is only when a Government are elected that they are allowed to deliver on their manifesto, and we actually did that. We made a huge difference only a few months ago. There is a lot more to do, and I ask the Minister what other people have asked: can he give assurances to the members of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, and the families and widows, that he will do everything in his power to ensure that in the Budget next week, miners in our coalfields are given full justice?
Blair McDougall
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work on behalf of miners throughout his life. I will come to the specifics of the scheme and his ask in a moment, but he is absolutely right that issues like this are exactly why all of us came into politics in the first place; we came into politics to deliver for individuals like these.
Previous Governments have failed to ensure that former British Coal employees got the amount of pension they deserved. In 2021, the Select Committee looking at the mineworkers’ pension scheme recommended that the Government take no further funds from the scheme, transfer the reserve to scheme members and review the surplus sharing arrangements. That Conservative Government declined to accept those recommendations, but miners, as my hon. Friend said, deserve those historical wrongs to be righted. That is why the Government are implementing those recommendations, for both schemes.
We continue to guarantee both schemes, ensuring that scheme members’ pensions will always be paid. As has been said, in 2024, one of the first decisions we made was to transfer the £1.5 billion investment reserve in the miners’ scheme for use as bonus pensions. The hard work of colleagues on the Labour Benches increased those incomes by 32%—an average of £29 per week.
We have also transferred the £2.3 billion equivalent in the British coal staff scheme. That led to a 41% increase in pension incomes last December, backdated to November 2024. On average, that meant an extra £100 per week in scheme members’ pockets and, as has been said, that went into local economies. That is direct support for the pensioners and local communities who powered this country for decades.
However, as all the hon. Members who have contributed to the debate have said, there is more to do. My hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield raises important questions. We are in that terrible pre-Budget period when lots of Ministers stand at the Dispatch Box and ask for patience. I have to do the same, but I recognise that we are dealing with people who are incredibly advanced in years and cannot afford to wait indefinitely.
We have been discussing proposals for future arrangements for the scheme with the trustees, including the potential for future surpluses to be used to enhance benefits, and we have been making good progress. The Government will make an announcement once that agreement has been formally reached, and we are seeking to do that as swiftly as possible, while managing wider funding risks. The Government and trustees have had very constructive discussions. I hope to be in a position to announce a way forward shortly, and I will continue to work with hon. Members towards that end.
Question put and agreed to.