July 5, 2018 - The Coal Authority is a partner organization of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and are experts at resolving the impacts of mining. They manage related public safety, property and environmental risks.

It’s been an inspiring year for the Coal Authority as they've continued to grow and transform into an organization that’s increasingly sustainable to enable them to deliver their next 5-year plan.

The next plan is an evolution of the strategy they’ve followed over the last 5 years. It balances a strong focus on core operational delivery to keep people safe and improve environments impacted by the UK’s mining legacy with a continued clear focus on innovation and continuous improvement. This enables them to reduce costs to the taxpayer, support and develop the people and ensure they sustain the specialist skills they need to deliver for the future.

Over the past year they’ve worked to:

• grow their customer base, diversify their income and make significant progress in saving costs through innovation

• adapt and respond to major events, including flooding, and significant subsidence events

• enable a mining reports market, and seen competition develop in line with their business plan

• respond to the customers’ needs, launching a new report for consultants and conveyancers

• develop mine related services to enable those in government, infrastructure and development sectors to manage risk and cost

• support the development of ochre, a by-product of mine water treatment, as a fine art product

• engage with water industry partners to examine various opportunities for water including co-treatment, supply and drought alleviation

They’ve contributed to the delivery of the UK’s Industrial Strategy by adopting solar power at some mine water treatment schemes and by evaluating the clean energy potential stored in mine workings.

Read the Coal Authority Annual Report and Accounts 2017 to 2018 here (PDF).