Coal Industry Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:05 pm on 17 June 1980.

Alert me about debates like this

Last, I know that the whole House will welcome clause 8, which proposes an increase in the limit on Government contributions to the industry's pneumoconiosis compensation scheme from £100 million to £107 million. The purpose of the increase is to enable the widows of pneumoconiosis victims who died before 1970 to receive an improved lump sum by way of compensation. In taking this step we are following the precedent of the Pneumoconiosis (Workers Compensation) (Payment of Claims) Regulations which my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Employment introduced last December, and which were generally welcomed. We shall remedy in an equitable way an anomaly which has long woried both the board and the unions, and rightly so.