§ Mr. Eric ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on progress in reinstating pension rights for those miners sacked as a result of the 1984 industrial dispute. [139094]
§ Mrs. LiddellIn May I circulated a consultation document concerning the issue of dismissals by British Coal in the course of the 1984–85 miners dispute. In the absence of evidence that dismissed men had been deprived of any pension rights to which they had been entitled prior to their dismissal, the document made proposals aimed at addressing injustices which might have occurred at that time while endeavouring not to re-open old wounds or create new anomalies.
The consultation exercise elicited some starkly conflicting views, and I am in the process of considering how these might be reconciled and the matter satisfactorily resolved.