A SENIOR Labour MP has cranked up the pressure on the Government to speed up compensation payments for sick and dying miners.

Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain is understood to have written to Energy Minister Helen Liddell urging her to look into the situation.

Latest figures from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) show that 114,236 claims have been lodged by miners and their families across the country.

But more than two years after a High Court ruling granted miners the right to compensation because of lung diseases caused by coal dust, few claims have been settled in full. No up-to-date figures are available from the DTI, but this summer only one full and final settlement had been made.

Mr Hain, who is Minister of State at the Foreign Office, has his constituency in Neath, South Wales, a former hotbed of mining.

He refused to comment on the correspondence with Mrs Liddell, but told The Northern Echo: "I do feel very strongly about this and think it is absolutely vital to get any blockages out of the system to speed this up.

"I have previously raised this issue with doctors, health officials and solicitors involved in the claims process in my constituency and asked what is causing the delays. We have achieved an enormous amount in introducing this compensation scheme, however, after years in which the Tories turned their back on the miners."

Mr Hain's intervention comes as a boost for campaigners pressing for justice for the North-East's former miners, who are being supported by The Northern Echo.

Preparations are under way for a delegation from the region to meet Helen Liddell in London later this autumn.

Meanwhile, the DTI says it is concentrating on ways to speed up the Medical Assessment Procedure involved in the compensation process.

Less than 2,000 medical assessments - the final step for claimants before they receive a full and final compensation offer - have been carried out across the country.

A DTI spokeswoman said: "We are focusing on looking at how we can improve the Medical Assessment Procedure.

"We can already see some very small improvements and are just cracking on and trying to speed things up.