COLLIERY WORKERS (INDUSTRIAL INJURIES) (Hansard, 26 July 1955)

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance (Mr. Ernest Marples)

The business of the House finished a little earlier than I expected, and I am sorry that I am a second or so late.

The Order further amends the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Colliery Workers Supplementary Scheme, made in 1948, which is the parent Scheme. That Scheme is a contributory one, providing supplementary benefits for persons receiving benefit under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946, in respect of colliery accidents and diseases. The Minister is responsible for paying supplementary benefits in certain cases, and in the remainder the National Coal Board acts as the paying agent.

It should be made clear that the Scheme imposes no charge upon the Exchequer or upon the Industrial Injuries Fund. That is an important point to make. In either case the payment is made out of moneys provided by the Fund formed by the contributions from the National Coal Board—4d. a ton on the total saleable tonnage of deep-mined coal—and 4d. a week from the employee; less for boys and women.

The general administration of the Scheme rests with the National Committee, which consists of five employers' representatives and five workers' representatives. The proposed amendments are to increase the benefit. Like those of the earlier Orders, they have been asked for by the National Committee and will be the second set of 1140 amendments this year. Since the earlier amendment a detailed Report has been received by the Government Actuary on the finances of the Scheme. This has revealed a substantial and growing surplus. The increases in benefit now proposed are regarded by the Actuary as well within the surplus which can be prudently released without changes in the contribution rates. In other words, the Actuary is of opinion that the increases now proposed can easily be made out of the money at the disposal of the Committee.

There are many changes. I do not think the House would like me to detail all of them, but I will mention one or two by way of illustration. It is proposed to increase the rate of supplementary injury benefit for adults from 22s. 6d. to 25s. per week, with proportionate changes for juveniles. Secondly, it is similarly proposed to increase the rate of supplementary disablement benefit for 100 per cent. disablement from 22s. 6d. to 25s., with corresponding increases for juveniles. This increase will apply where two or more disablement pensions amount to the 100 per cent. rate, or where the person is receiving approved hospital treatment. It is also proposed to increase the supplementary disablement gratuity from its present proportion of one-quarter of the basic disablement pension rate to one-third, thus bringing it into line with the supplementary disablement pension for less than the 100 per cent. rate, which is already paid at one-third of the basic disablement pension rate.

It is proposed to increase the rate of supplementary widows' pension for the able-bodied childless widow from 6s. 3d. to 7s. 6d. per week, while that for other widows is to be increased from 22s. 6d. to 25s. per week. The final proposal which I will mention is the introduction of a new supplementary benefit. I think this is of great importance to almost everyone. A gratuity is to be payable on the remarriage of a widow entitled to a supplementary widow's pension at the rate of one-third of the gratuity awarded her under the main Industrial Injuries Act. The present industrial injuries remarriage gratuity is equivalent to one year's pension. The supplementary pension will therefore be £39 in the case of a widow on the higher rate of pension.

1141 That is a rather brief and perhaps slightly belated explanation of the Order which I ask the House to approve. I hope the House will accept it. I know that the hon. Member for Mansfield (Mr. B. Taylor), who has followed the course of this class of benefit, would like to say a few words about it on behalf of the Opposition. I believe that this is an agreed Measure, and I hope that the House will pass it with reasonable expedition at this late hour.

§ Mr. Bernard Taylor (Mansfield)

We accept the hon. Gentleman's apology for being a little late, particularly in view of the very lucid explanation that he has given of the Order. My observations will be very brief, in view of what the Parliamentary Secretary has said.

I should like to make these observations because the mining industry is the only one which has initiated a supplementary scheme under Section 83 of the Industrial Injuries Act, and it has been of great help and benefit to people incapacitated in the industry. We have been talking earlier today about economies by the Exchequer; I would emphasise that this supplementary scheme is financed by the joint contributions of so much from the N.C.B. per ton of coal raised and so much per week from the miners themselves. During the past seven years the scheme has been of great help to our incapacitated people and to widows whose husbands had the misfortune to meet with a fatal accident or who died from pneumoconiosis or other industrial diseases.

One all—important observation I must make. In spite of the untiring efforts of the National Coal Board and of the National Union of Mineworkers to promote safety and to reduce accidents in the mining industry and the incidence of pneumoconiosis and other industrial diseases, the figures for the industry are still alarmingly high.

The number of awards of benefit made during 1954 for the mining industry alone is no fewer than 340,000. This House would do well, in a short debate of this kind, to pay a compliment, in view of those circumstances, to those responsible 1142 for the initiation and progress of the Scheme, and, as the Parliamentary Secretary pointed out by inference, to the very healthy state of the Fund. It is indeed a compliment to both sides of the industry, and many of us know that thousands of miners have been very grateful for the additional benefit which the Supplementary Scheme provides.

As the hon. Gentleman intimated, the Actuary and the National Committee representing both sides of the industry are completely satisfied that the Fund can bear this cost without any increase at all in contributions. I wish to reinforce what the hon. Gentleman said about the new feature. It is only a new feature so far as this Scheme is concerned. It has been characteristic of the Industrial Injuries Scheme since its inception in 1948, but here the Committee, I think wisely, has decided that this feature shall now be embodied in the Supplementary Scheme and that a remarriage gratuity shall be paid to the widows who remarry.

We on this side of the House welcome, the Order, and we are very anxious to expedite its passage through the House. We appreciate the efforts of the hon. Gentleman, his right hon. Friend and the Department in bringing the Order before us before the House rises for the Recess so that payments can be made much earlier than they would have been had the Order been delayed until the autumn. We welcome the Order, and I am obliged to the hon. Gentleman for being so expeditious.