THE Government has brushed aside calls for a minimum compensation payment to be made to miners whose lungs were damaged by coal dust.

In a report, the Coalfield Communities Campaign (CCC) said that very small sums paid to ex-pitmen were not acceptable even when smoking was taken into account. It has been joined by some individual solicitors' firms in calling for a minimum payment and argues that many settlements do not reflect those in common law cases involving injury.

The report cites the case of one ex-miner, living in County Durham, with 13 years service who was offered only £33, largely because he had been a smoker for 24 years.

In a statement, Energy Minister Nigel Griffiths said: "When the compensation agreement was reached in 1998, all parties, including miners' representatives such as the CCC, accepted that a number of factors such as history of smoking should be taken into account.

"At no point did the CCC call upon the judge to change the procedures and bring in a minimum payment."

North Durham MP Kevan Jones said the idea of a minimum payment was "fundamentally flawed" and too simplistic. He said: "Compensation payments are not payments for people who have simply worked in the coal industry - they are payments for people whose health has been damaged and as such have to be on an assessment basis."

More than 50 MPs have put their name to an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons which calls for a minimum £1,500 to be paid where damage to the lungs from working in the coal industry has been established.