Almost 250 former miners whose health was damaged while working at the coal face died before getting compensation owed to them by the Government, figures have revealed.
The previous government set up a compensation scheme in the late 1990s, to give money to miners suffering from the chest condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and another condition, vibration white finger.
But the scheme was dogged by delays, legal wrangles, bad planning and poor administration, leading to many miners never seeing a penny of the compensation due to them before they died.
Statistics now published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed that in Leicestershire, 244 miners died before getting any compensation.
The majority of them, 159, were from North West Leicestershire, while 34 were from Bosworth. The remainder were from across the rest of Leicestershire.
Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said: "Unfortunately, delay in the setting up and managing of compensation schemes has meant many ex-miners have not had their compensation before they died.
"It is my wish that the scheme is now managed in a more organised and efficient way so the widows of miners receive what they are entitled to."
A spokesman for DECC said: "The compensation schemes for vibration white finger and COPD had a total of some 760,000 claims in all.
"This was the biggest scheme of its kind and we continually sought efficiencies and looked to learn and apply lessons from its delivery."
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