THE Government has caved in to protests and withdrawn controversial plans to impose compensation settlements on ex-miners.

In what amounts to a victory for The Northern Echo's Justice for the Miners campaign, Coal Health Minister Nigel Griffiths has accepted that it would be wrong to deny tens of thousands of ex-miners access to a full assessment by a chest specialist if they disagree with an offer.

Instead, the Government is hoping to introduce a simplified scheme that would lead to faster pay-outs for many ex-miners suffering from lung damage.

The U-turn followed a series of exclusive stories in The Northern Echo that alerted MPs from mining areas to the confidential proposals.

The climb-down by the minister was last night hailed as "a very welcome move" by Newcastle-based Roger Maddocks, a leading member of the group of solicitors representing more than 300,000 claimants.

Mick Clapham, Barnsley West MP and chairman of the coalfields communities group of MPs, said: "If it hadn't been for The Northern Echo we would have had a scheme imposed on us with many miners having no right to take matters through to the medical assessment process."

The Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) proposals were submitted to the High Court last week, but the details were not disclosed during the two-day hearing.

The proposals were put together at the request of High Court judge Mr Justice Turner, who is responsible for overseeing the respiratory compensation scheme introduced in the late 1990s.

The judge has urged the DTI and the claimants solicitors' group to come up with radical proposals to speed up the processing and assessment of the estimated 378,000 ex-miners and their families still in the queue.

The DTI had predicted that with only 152,000 out of 530,000 respiratory compensation claims settled, it could take until 2011 to clear the backlog.

The concerns of mining area MPs were forcefully expressed yesterday at a private meeting with Mr Griffiths at the Houses of Parliament.

MPs made it clear that imposed settlements without the option of having a medical were unacceptable.

But the mining MPs agreed with the minister that claimants with less severe lung damage could be offered set amounts, according to a simplified sliding scale, or tariff, to speed up payments.

Within a few hours of the meeting a statement was issued by the minister.

Instead of pressing forward with plans to make "take-it-or-leave-it" offers, the minister has accepted that all claimants have the right to a medical.

Mr Griffiths said: "I recognise the strength of feeling against making tariff offers compulsory, and I have agreed that all claimants should have the choice of a medical assessment, which can result in a lower, as well as a higher, offer and will take longer. This is the proposal we are putting to the judge."

He said the most affected claimants would have retained their right to a medical.

Officials from the DTI are due to meet the solicitors' group today to discuss the proposals. Both sides will make final submissions to the High Court next week.