Qualifying individuals
5.The pardon applies to qualifying individuals. “Qualifying individual” is defined in section 2 of the Act to mean an individual who was a miner, an individual who was (at the time of the commission of the offence) a member of the same household as a miner, or an individual who was (at the time of the commission of the offence) a parent of a miner, a child of a miner or a sibling of a miner. “Sibling of a miner” is defined in section 5 of the Act as an individual who has at least one parent in common with a miner. That means that a half sibling of a miner is a qualifying individual.
6.The definition of “qualifying individual” includes a deceased individual, so the pardon applies to those living and posthumously.
Meaning of “miner”
7.In accordance with the definition of “miner” in section 5 of the Act, the pardon applies to individuals who were employed by—
the National Coal Board, or
small mine licensees, to work at small private pits.
8.It does not matter what role the miner had. The definition of “miner” includes, for example, all underground workers, all surface workers and all of those employed in workshops that were situated away from the coal mines.
9.There is no need for the miner to have been employed in Scotland: the miner could have been employed in any part of Great Britain. As long as the conviction (as defined in section 5 of the Act) was from a Scottish criminal court, it does not matter that the individual did not live in Scotland and had travelled from outside Scotland to participate in strike activity.
10.The miner could have been employed at any time during the strike period of 12 March 1984 to 3 March 1985. That means that the definition of “miner” includes miners who retired, or who were sacked during the strike period, who were not employed or on strike at the time that the offence was committed.
Meaning of “household”
11.“Household” is defined in section 5 of the Act. For an individual to be classed as being in the same household as a miner for the purposes of the pardon, the individual must have lived with the miner as a family or other unit. It does not matter whether the individual and the miner were related so, for example, a group of friends who rented a flat together would constitute a household. A lodger could count as a member of a household if the lodger was living as “one of the family”.
12.The individual and the miner must have been living in a private dwelling that was their only or main residence and they must have shared cooking facilities and shared a living room or sitting room or dining area.
