3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:03 pm on 5 March 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 3:03, 5 March 2019

Thank you very much for raising this and for paying tribute to Steffan's work in this particular area. Of course, Welsh Government has also been a long-time supporter of our mineworkers here in Wales, and I know that the First Minister has met with the NUM in order to look at the progress that's been made with regard to this particular campaign and to discuss how we can best support the 22,000 people in Wales who are amongst the nearly 140,000 people who are affected by this. 

I know the First Minister has also written to the UK Government and to the scheme trustees to ask them to review the scheme and to consider revising the approach to the division of the surpluses that you describe—surpluses of over £2.5 billion, I understand—to agree a new and fairer distribution of those surpluses, and thus improve the pensioners' benefits and reflect the true level of risk, actually, that's involved in that particular pension scheme. We hope that the UK Government will respond to the issues raised in the report and undertake to work with the NUM to deliver a positive outcome for the scheme's dependents, and the First Minister will be making a written statement on this particular issue today. I think it's actually just arrived in everybody's inboxes.