Martyn Jones

Labour Party | Clwyd South

£7.5 Million For Miners In Clwyd South

In the largest personal injury compensation scheme in history, miners from Clwyd South reached a significant milestone today as compensation paid to them and their families topped £7,500,000. 

Martyn Jones, MP for Clwyd South met with Nigel Griffiths, Minister in charge of Miners’ Claims to compensation to welcome this fantastic news.

The department for trade and industry was inundated with over 700,000 claims when it offered this compensation process to the public last year. 

British Coal (BC) had been taken to court in 1996 under two separate group litigations supported by the mining unions. In 1997, BC was found negligent in relation to Vibration White Finger (VWF), and in 1998 for lung diseases.

In each judgement, a “date of guilty knowledge” was set by the High Court.  For respiratory disease it was 4 June 1954 in England and Wales and 4 June 1949 in Scotland.  For VWF it was 1 January 1975.   It was judged that before these dates, with the knowledge and technology available to British Coal at that time, they would not have been expected to be aware of the risks of exposure.  However, after this date, British Coal should have been aware of the risks and should have taken steps to protect its employees against coal dust, fumes, and vibration.  The liabilities of British Coal transferred to the government department on 1 January 1998 (under terms of Coal Industry Act 1994). And the government department has been working closely with solicitors since to ensure that all miners who are entitled to this compensation receive it as quickly as possible. 

The Government Department in charge of this scheme will pay all legal costs involved in settling the compensation claims. Mr. Jones feels that this may be misunderstood by his constituents who may be incurring unwarranted costs.  He wishes to draw this potential problem to the attention of those families who have registered claims but are yet to be settled.

Commenting, Mr. Jones said:

“If your solicitor is making deductions from your compensation via an additional fee or a union fee and did not advise you that other representatives are processing claims without making any deductions, you should contact the Law Society to make a complaint on 0845 608 6565 or you may wish to speak to me.”

This is one of the biggest budgets in the DTI who are paying out around £1.8 million every working day in compensation for respiratory and vibration related diseases. Around 746,000 claimants have been registered over both schemes and it is estimated that the Government will spend over £8bn in total.

Commenting, Mr. Jones said:

“These are the biggest personal injury schemes in British legal history and possibly the world. Miners’ in our area were the backbone of the British coal industry and rightfully deserve this compensation. The special nature of the scheme introduced by the Labour government that replaced the chaos left by the Conservative government - where claimants were left to their own devices - has ensured that we have been able to get money to those who deserve it as quickly as possible.  This is great news for Clwyd South!”