MORE miners fighting for compensation for coal-related diseases are receiving their full and final officers, Wales Office minister Don Touhig says.

The Argus has been campaigning since Aug-ust 1999 to get compensation payments speeded up to miners suffering from coal-related diseases, and the widows of those who have already died.

Last month we reported that the biggest compensation claim - £247,357 - had been paid to a former pitman from Neath.

Despite this, and other huge settlements, only a small percentage of the 34,000 claimants in Wales had received final payments.

Now Mr Touhig, MP for Islwyn, has welcomed the latest figures, which show that nearly £12 million has been paid out in the last seven weeks.

Mr Touhig, who chairs the sub-group monitoring the claims' process, said they were seeing much higher numbers of full and final offers, particularly for the most ill and elderly claimants.

He said the latest figures from the Department of Trade and Industry indicated that nearly £12 million had been paid out for respiratory disease claims since their last meeting earlier this year.

A further £4 million compensation had been paid to former Welsh miners who are or were sufferers of vib-ration white finger.

It brought the total paid in Wales to nearly £77 million for respiratory disease and more than £58 million for vibration white finger.

"We are continuing to give priority to the most elderly and ill claimants and widows are also being dealt with first, wherever possible.

"This is the biggest compensation scheme ever in the UK.

"There remains much work to be done but today's figures show that we are meeting the challenge."

Mr Touhig also praised the efforts of the Coal Health Claims Monitoring Welsh sub-group which had made "a major contribution to this welcome progress, both in Wales and beyond."