The trustees of the £8.6bn British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme are in discussions with government officials regarding the use of a £2.3bn reserve fund.
It follows the transfer of part of a separate reserve fund to the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme at the end of October, which was then distributed to members.
Under rules agreed when the coal sector was privatised in the 1990s, the government can reclaim a share of any surplus that exists in the mineworkers’ scheme following a triennial actuarial valuation.
These rules are subject to a review that was initiated following the transfer of the reserve fund money in October.
For BCSSS, however, the scheme rules are different. The surplus-sharing arrangement for the scheme was ended in 2015, but an investment reserve fund still exists and any changes to how this is used – including distributing to members – have to be agreed by the government, as the official guarantor of the pension scheme.
Following questions from MPs, minister for industry Sarah Jones promised to listen to BCSSS’s trustees over potential changes to the pension scheme’s rules.
The trustees subsequently wrote to Jones requesting the transfer of the serve fund to the BCSSS for distribution to members, and called for a review of how any future surplus is used.
Following a meeting between the BCSSS trustees and Jones this week, the minister agreed to raise the issue with relevant officials and provide an update in the new year.
In a statement, the BCSSS trustees said: “We believe that this is a positive step, and we know how important this subject is to members.”
The statement added that scheme members could write to their local MPs to encourage support for the changes.
The BCSSS investment reserve was discussed in parliament on 17 December, with several MPs posing questions to Ed Miliband, secretary of state in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
While the BCSSS is a separate entity from the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, Miliband agreed there was a “read-across” between the two. He added that there was “the sense that the injustice that has been remedied in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme needs to be remedied in the BCSSS”.
