HC Deb 18 January 2002 vol 378 cc504-5W
Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations(a) she and (b) her Department has received on allowing former miners, who were sacked in the 1980s, access to their pension funds. [27606]

Mr. Wilson

None. All former British Coal miners when reaching pensionable age, whether dismissed or not, have access to the pension benefits they have accrued while in employment.

I announced on 11 December 2001, Official Report, columns 759–60W, that certain miners dismissed during the 1984–85 strike would receive an enhancement to their pension in recognition of the years of further service they lost as a result of British Coal's decision not to re-employ them.