COMPENSATION payments to former miners are to be speeded up after a breakthrough court judgement.

A High Court ruling by Sir Michael Turner yesterday means that up to 160,000 ex-miners will receive faster payments for lung damage.

It follows weeks of proposals and counter-proposals from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and solicitors representing the hundreds of thousands of claimants.

Crucially, following exclusive reports in The Northern Echo which warned miners' leaders that the DTI wanted to deny thousands of claimants access to a full assessment by a chest specialist and impose compensation settlements, the judgement confirms that all ex-miners will have the right to the full medical.

While the ruling should begin to ease the backlog that led the DTI to predict it could take until 2011 to settle every claim, there are concerns that some ex-miners might lose out by accepting fast-track payments.

Sources warned that many of the claimants might end up getting about £1,000, compared with the average compensation payment so far of £11,000.

It is also reported that the DTI is likely to save about £2bn from the overall compensation bill by bringing in a fast-track approach.

The fast-track payments will be based on the results of miners' spirometry tests. They will be split into four bands:

* Normal lung function with no evidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

* Limited evidence of lung disease but with the possibility of other causes

* Unable to complete the medical test for reasons that are avoidable

* Tests likely to be affected by asthma.

Miners more seriously affected and those medically unable to complete the test will receive a full medical assessment.

The DTI previously submitted proposals to pay pitmen with near-normal lung capacity £1,600 as part of fast-track offers and £2,700 to those with limited lung damage.

Last night, the DTI said the fast-track offers would be based on average payments during the scheme, not including the first and last six months.

The judgement confirmed that miners claiming respiratory disease compensation retain the right to reject any fast-track offer and undergo a full medical assessment.

Miners more seriously affected - because their spirometry test shows at least some lung damage - or those medically unable to complete the test will also have a full medical assessment.

It is understood that miners who turn down the fast-track offer and are then refused compensation by a specialist would end up empty-handed.

Coal Health Minister Nigel Griffiths said: "I welcome the judge's ruling. I believe this change to the scheme is essential in order to deliver compensation to miners."

Since the respiratory disease compensation scheme was set up in 1999, following a ruling by Sir Michael Turner that British Coal had been negligent in relation to respiratory diseases, more than £1.2bn has been paid out to 156,000 ex-miners and their families.

Fears that the DTI is planning to make it more difficult for widows to make claims on behalf of deceased miners were behind a parliamentary motion tabled yesterday.

A total of 21 Labour MPs from coalfields communities, including Durham North MP Kevan Jones, signed the motion attacking proposed changes.

They condemned proposals that would, in their view, lead to claims being judged as unassessable where there was a "paucity of evidence".

They said such a description could include cases where a widow had supplied a death certificate and a correctly completed application form for compensation.

Yet, until now, the DTI had accepted the need to reach a settlement on the basis of the "balance of probability" - awarding less compensation as a result.