The Coal Authority has changed its name to the Mining Remediation Authority to better reflect the organisation’s 24/7 role to manage the effects of historical mining in England, Scotland and Wales and its work to seek low-carbon opportunities from our mining heritage for the future. The change has been approved by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The Mining Remediation Authority's mine water treatment scheme at Lynemouth.
Jeff Halliwell, chair of the Mining Remediation Authority, said:
“The Coal Authority has undertaken vital work for 30 years to keep people, drinking water and the environment safe from the legacy impacts of our mining heritage.
“As we look to the future and their work increasingly focuses on remediation and exciting low carbon opportunities, such as mine water heating, it is appropriate to change our name to reflect the important work ahead.”
The Coal Authority celebrated 30 years of frontline delivery on the 31 October 2024 and the statutory responsibilities of the Mining Remediation Authority will not change as it continues to have primary responsibilities for managing the coal assets and legacy as defined in the Coal Industry Act 1994, including public safety and subsidence and informing safe development and growth across Great Britain.
Lisa Pinney MBE, chief executive officer of the Mining Remediation Authority, said:
“Becoming the Mining Remediation Authority better reflects the important work we do to make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas across Great Britain.
“We will continue to deliver the same frontline work to support mining communities, keep people safe from coal hazards, protect drinking water, rivers and the sea from pollution, inform development and conveyancing decisions, and enable opportunities from the assets we manage, working closely with partners and the emergency services.”
The Authority’s ongoing work includes:
- Undertaking hundreds of tip inspections of its own tips, those of partners and as part of the Welsh Government tips taskforce.
- Treating billions of litres of mine water each year to protect drinking water, rivers and the sea pollution and monitoring mine water, designing and building more treatment schemes each year to create more capacity (currently 231 billion litres / year) and responding to mine water incidents.
- Supporting growth and development through permitting and licensing functions and as a statutory planning consultee and ensuring confidence to the conveyancing industry through our mining report service and the provision of data to other report providers. In 2023/24 we delivered more than 9,000 planning consultation responses, more than 1,600 permits and licenses and more than 120,000 mining reports.
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