1.1 This is the eighth Annual Report provided by the Coal Authority to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on the administration of coal mining subsidence damage claims.

1.2 The statistical returns cover the financial year 2001/02, the Authority’s seventh full year of operation.

1.3 All claims for coal mining subsidence damage are administered either by the Coal Authority or the relevant private coal-mining operator. The Coal Authority is mostly concerned with claims arising from the historic coal mining operations of British Coal, whereas the private operators administer claims that arise in AAreas of Responsibility" associated with their mining operations.

1.4 The annexed year end figures include a total of 356 new claims received by the private operators. In the same period 703 claims were discharged by the operators, some of which were claims received by them in previous years. Of the 2442 outstanding claims, 1182 are being administered by the Coal Authority, with the remaining 1260 being dealt with by the private operators.

2.1 1552 new claims were received during the year to March 2002, compared with 2144 received in the previous year. This reduction was expected because the incidence of mining subsidence damage for which the Coal Authority is responsible reduces with the passage of time.

2.2 The statistics provided below give a comparison with the previous year. The table annexed provides more detailed statistical information.

3.1 The statistics at paragraph 2 above and annexed indicate that:-

3.2 There has been a noticeable decrease in the average cost of claim settlement when compared to the same period last year. This reduction is in all categories of claims but is most evident in Statutory Undertaker claims. It has been brought about because many of the large more complex claims have been settled in previous years and have not been replaced by new claims.

3.3 The proportion of rejected claims to settled claims was 36:64. The figures for last year were 32:68. Both these figures show that the proportion of rejected claims has risen as anticipated because the incidence of mining subsidence damage for which the Coal Authority is responsible reduces with the passage of time.

3.4 The total cost of claims settled was just over £10 million. This is a substantial reduction from the total cost recorded the previous year of £22 million. This is again due to the large more expensive commercial/Industrial/ Statutory Undertakers claims being resolved in previous years.

During the year 25 claims were registered with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators under the Arbitration Schemes applicable to mining subsidence claims. Of these, 20 were under the Householders Scheme and 5 under the General Scheme. In the same period 24 awards were made, of these 20 were under the Householders Scheme and 4 under the General Scheme. The Arbitrators found in favour of the "responsible person" on 17 of these awards.