COALFIELDS TASK FORCE REPORT

That this House welcomes the Coalfields Taskforce report Making the Difference and its acknowledgement that the reinstatement of miners sacked during the 1984-85 strike has varied from location to location; notes that the taskforce has acknowledged that there is a large surplus in the miners' pension funds and thus specifically recommends that the Government should review the pension entitlement of those miners not reinstated after the strike; and calls upon the Government to consider acting upon the recommendation of the taskforce and to use the pension fund surplus to help those sacked miners who between March 1985 and January 1997 were prevented from working in the mining industry by agreeing to their 'technical reinstatement' so that they may receive their due pension contributions.