Miners' compensation 'exploited' says peer's report

A compensation scheme for sick miners has been exploited by unscrupulous solicitors, a report has claimed.

The scheme was supposed to distribute £3.4bn to 760,000 former British Coal workers, many of whom suffered from serious injuries brought on by mining under the Coal Health Schemes. Many former miners have suffered from injuries such as chronic lung disease.

But Lord Lofthouse, a Labour peer, says at least two law firms have made £100m from the scheme, while miners have had their pay-outs reduced by legal fees.

His report on compensation is being handed to the prime minister later. Lord Lofthouse will argue that money should be paid back, which he says is rightfully the miners' and that the Law Society failed to properly investigate miners' complaints against solicitors taking the fees.

Lord Lofthouse claims that claimants under the scheme, which saw legal fees wholly funded by the government, were also "double charged" by incurring legal costs and disbursements which were taken from their compensation.

The peer, himself an ex-miner, said some former mining union officials had brokered and sold on rights to compensation cases.

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