Mines rescue

The coalition government has come under attack over its failure to provide funding to the privately run Mines Rescue Service.

The result of an official investigation into the tragic loss of four miners’ lives at the Gleision colliery, South Wales, in September 2011 is pending. However, critics have attacked the coalition over the lack of government funding made available to the Mines Rescue Service.

Peter Hain, the shadow Wales secretary and Labour MP for Neath, who has produced his own report into the disaster, concluded that without government action, there could be ”a serious erosion of mines rescue capability, threatening the lives of miners in the future”.

Hain accused the government of papering “over some very wide cracks”.