Corporate report

Mining Remediation Authority annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026: performance report

Updated 4 August 2026

1. Mining Remediation Authority annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026

For the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 60(6) of the Coal Industry Act 1994.

Accounts presented to Parliament pursuant to paragraph 15(4) of Schedule 1 to the Coal Industry Act 1994.

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 14 July 2026.

On 28 November 2024, the Coal Authority became known by a new operating name, the Mining Remediation Authority, to reflect its evolving role in managing the legacy of the UK mining industry.

The Coal Authority remains the legal name of the organisation, until new legislation is made to confirm the change.

References to the Mining Remediation Authority should be interpreted as the Coal Authority.

HC 272

© Crown copyright 2026

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3.

Where we have identified any third-party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at www.gov.uk/official-documents.

Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at:

The Mining Remediation Authority, 200 Lichfield Lane, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 4RG

Telephone: 0345 762 6848 Email: customerservice@miningremediation.gov.uk

ISBN 978-1-5286-6435-6

E03595078 07/26

2. Performance report

2.1 Our governance

We have an independent board responsible for setting our strategic direction and holding us to account.

The board ensures that our statutory duties are carried out effectively and that we bring our mission, purpose and values to life.

Our chair and board members have relevant experience to support our work.

Non-executive directors are recruited and appointed to the board by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Executive directors are recruited to their posts by the board and some of them are then appointed to the board, also by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

2.2 Overview

The Mining Remediation Authority is a non-departmental public body and partner organisation of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Our mission

Making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

Our purpose

• we keep people safe and provide peace of mind
• we protect and enhance the environment
• we use our information and expertise to help people make informed decisions
• we create value and minimise cost to the taxpayer

We use our skills to provide services to other government departments and agencies, local governments and commercial partners.

We work with departments across UK government to deliver on UK government missions, including kickstarting economic growth, make Britain a clean energy superpower and break down barriers to opportunity.

We also contribute to the wider environmental, social and economic priorities of the Scottish and Welsh governments.

By sharing our knowledge and expertise, we support them and our partners to create safer, cleaner and greener nations for us all.

Our values

Trusted

• we act with integrity
• we’re open and transparent
• we deliver on our commitments

Inclusive

• we promote a culture of mutual respect
• we recognise that our differences make us stronger
• we work with others to achieve our mission

Progressive

• we’re open minded and innovative
• we recognise that the past can help us shape the future
• we listen and learn

2.3 The work we do

During 2025 to 2026, across the 3 nations we serve:

We kept people safe and provided peace of mind

12,095 mine entry inspections were carried out

800 mining hazards, subsidence claims and emergency calls were investigated and assessed

1,118 inspections on spoil heaps (tips) owned by the Mining Remediation Authority and our partners were carried out

We used our information and expertise to help people make informed decisions

106,976 mining reports delivered

1,574 permits issued to intersect coal

8,045 planning consultation responses provided

We protected and enhanced the environment

232 billion litres of capacity to treat mine water created or maintained

3,712 tonnesof iron prevented from entering water courses

83%of our relevant operational sites have completed habitat surveys

We created value and minimised cost to the taxpayer

£13 millionof income generated through our advisory services

£395,000generated through by-product sales

£157,400 saved through our solar scheme sites

2.4 Chair’s forward by Jeff Halliwell

I am pleased to introduce our 2025 to 2026 report and accounts, which summarise another year of strong delivery.

We have further enabled safe growth and development and ensured effective emergency response to protect life, property, drinking water and the environment through a year of extreme weather which has posed additional challenges for our work.

Additionally, we have progressed further digital, AI and technology improvements and efficiencies and enabled the delivery of more innovative mine water heat, by-products and services.

All of this demonstrates sustained progress towards the ambitions of our 2032 vision.

So much of our work supports safe economic growth and development across mining areas as well as wider government priorities across the 3 nations we serve.

You can see more detail in our case study on our work to support safe growth, development and opportunities, including our work to proportionately and effectively support National Grid’s Great Grid Upgrade, a project that will strengthen the transmission network and support the flow of low carbon electricity from the North of England to the Midlands.

This supports government priorities for decarbonisation and energy security.

This year we have also worked with ministers and officials in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade to support the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and smarter regulation priorities through our proportionate approach to working with developers and enabling developments in areas with complex mining legacy.

Over the past year we have enabled 568,815 hectares of regeneration and safe development for local communities through our work.

During 2025 to 2026, we have dealt with a number of significant incidents from fires to floods, ground collapses and subsidence and vast volumes of water through our mine water treatment schemes which have required unprecedented levels of pumping and management in some parts of the country.

We are on the frontline of the impacts of a changing climate and we recognise that we have been adapting our approaches to manage these additional pressures for some time.

In 2026 we published our climate change adaptation plan, which reflects in more detail and shows the additional steps and adaptations we will need to make in future.

These incidents have significant impacts for the customers and communities we serve and we continue to work with empathy to support them in every way that we can.

This year we have made significant progress in risk assessing and considering options to manage the nature of the mine water recovery in the large English ‘super mines’ which closed in the last 15 years.

I am grateful for the dedicated work of teams across the Mining Remediation Authority who work 24/7 to solve complex problems, consider community needs and keep people across Great Britain safe when needed.

At the beginning of the year we launched our new 2025 to 2028 business plan.

This builds on all that was achieved through the delivery of our 2022 to 2025 plan while ensuring sustained progress towards the ambitions of our 2032 vision.

The ‘middle plan’ of a 10 year vision has to be the engine house and we have ensured that during 2025 to 2026 we deliver-deliver-deliver.

This year we have also published new versions of our inclusion plan and health, safety and wellbeing plan which show the progress we made in the previous period as well as clear plans and targets for the years ahead.

We’ve made further progress with innovation both by driving continuous improvement through our statutory work and services for others and enabling further development of mine water heat schemes and by-product use.

We have continued to consider the environmental and social value we can deliver alongside value for the taxpayer and how we work in partnership with others to maximise what can be achieved.

Our approach to efficient delivery includes embracing new technology, AI and digital delivery to drive productivity, effectiveness and improved customer service while ensuring that face to face meetings and telephone services remain efficient and accessible to those who prefer them.

We’ve made strong, outcome focused progress against our AI priorities and worked closely with partners to share progress and learning.

Our approach considers ‘productivity for all’, ‘frontline delivery’ and ‘big wins’ whilst ensuring that there is always sufficient human oversight and honesty about where AI has been used.

You can read more about our progress and our work with the Hartree Centre and IBM to maximise the value of our Great British coal mining archive in a case study.

We’ve continued to work closely with officials and ministers at our sponsoring DESNZ as well as a range of UK government departments and the Welsh and Scottish governments.

You can read more about our work in Scotland, Wales and England in our case studies, which include a range of examples of our work as well as specific statistics for each country.

We are grateful to our supply chain and partners across each of the 3 nations we serve who help us deliver outcomes in the most effective way.

We have welcomed a number of ministers, officials, MPs, MSPs and MSs on site visits and were delighted to host a visit by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, to our Mining Heritage Centre in December.

We continue to take opportunities to benchmark ourselves and learn from best practice elsewhere. During the year we have maintained our Service Mark Accreditation from the Institute of Customer Service and won or been shortlisted for the following awards:

• finalist in the energy and environment category at the Collaborate to Innovate (C2I) Awards for our work on the Lindsay mine water heat scheme with Thermal Earth

• highly commended in the sustainability category, MCA Awards (Management Consultancies Association) for our work with Deloitte on the economic and commercial side of our mine water heat opportunities.

• Engineer Award finalist for our Cadre work with Ordnance Survey on the Mine Water Heat Project. The interactive mapping is now widely used and enables greater engagement with national and local government about geothermal energy.

Most of these awards were achieved in partnership which is especially pleasing.

I am very pleased with how our new name has continued to embed since it was launched in November 2024.

The organisation really feels like the Mining Remediation Authority and the change has helped us in working across the breadth of our remit as well as strengthening recruitment, work with partners and service delivery.

We look forward to the name being changed in legislation when there is an opportunity.

We continue to face a range of complex legal cases, land tribunals and arbitrations relating to our work.

This includes supporting UK government in defending an international trade claim relating in part to our coal licensing duties under the specific tests set out in the 1994 Coal Industry Act, and continuing to support and contribute to the ongoing pre-inquest process into the 2011 Gleision mine disaster. Our thoughts remain with the families of the miners lost in this tragedy.

We couldn’t achieve any of this without our passionate, expert and dedicated people.

We will continue to focus on supporting, valuing and developing our people and taking action to enable wellbeing and inclusion across the Mining Remediation Authority.

This ensures that we truly are a great place to work and can continue to attract the talent that we need to tackle the complex challenges we face and deliver the best service we can for communities across the mining areas of Great Britain.

When reading our accounts you’ll notice that our provisions balance, reflecting the future cost of resolving the impacts of past coal mining, has changed again this year, decreasing by £0.1 billion from £1.7 billion to £1.6 billion at March 2026.

This balance is calculated by applying HM Treasury assumptions on the value of money at various points in time in the future to a forecast of cash flows at today’s prices.

Our forecast of these underlying cash flows has increased by £0.1 billion to £4.2 billion, primarily reflecting increases in the cost of construction, operation and maintenance of our mine water schemes, and the ongoing trend over recent years of managing an increasing number of complex public safety incidents.

We expect the impacts of climate change adaptation to increase the provisions over time as we undertake more research.

We are also aware of the potential implications of the work we are currently doing to better understand the impact of saline water recovery in England.

We continue to seek efficiencies, learning and partnership to offset costs and minimise these impacts wherever possible alongside innovation and the use of technology.

The operational increases included this year are small compared with changes to the HM Treasury discount rates which decrease the financial provision by £0.2 billion.

You can find more information on this in the financial review and note 12.3 to the accounts.

Following our comprehensive external board effectiveness review in 2024, the board undertook an internal board effectiveness review in 2025 in line with Cabinet Office guidance.

This confirmed that the learning from the 2024 review has been embedded and identified some minor refinements to forward planning and governance, including earlier shaping discussions and flexible use of board calls for timely issues.

We have also undertaken work with the Good Governance Institute during the year to ensure that we keep learning and improving.

My thanks to the board for their leadership of the organisation over the past year.

I would like to thank Carys Mills for her excellent contributions under the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Boardroom Apprentice programme between January and December 2025 and hope to be part of future programmes which add significant value.

After 8 years of exemplary, values-led leadership we say goodbye to Lisa Pinney, our CEO, this year as she moves on to lead the new Fair Work Agency and we wish her the very best for her future role.

Lisa has transformed the Mining Remediation Authority in size, culture, ambition and approach and has truly contributed to our mission of making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

I know that we are in a strong place to further our progress and it is a tribute to the organisation and the teams Lisa has created that our work and ambitions will continue.

I am grateful to Paul Frammingham for agreeing to step into the role of interim CEO and Accounting Officer with effect from 7 April.

The board will confirm the appointment of our new CEO later this year.

Thank you to everyone for your contribution this year. I look forward to working with the board and wider organisation in the year ahead.

2.5 Chief executive’s report by Paul Frammingham

2025 to 2026 has been a year of strong delivery against our new 2025 to 2028 business plan.

We’ve made clear progress in each of our 5 business plan themes and towards the ambitions of our 10 year vision to 2032.

We have led or supported emergency response at a range of major, significant and routine incidents with a strong focus on supporting the customers and communities affected and have again seen first-hand the impacts of extreme weather and a changing climate on our work.

We’ve continued to focus on delivering environmental and social value alongside value for the taxpayer in everything we do.

During 2025 to 2026 we maintained and operated our 82 mine water treatment schemes so that we can treat up to 232 billion litres of mine water to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers and the sea.

We’ve taken further action to risk assess the mine water catchments relating to the largest English super mines, developed plans to mitigate their anticipated mine water rise over the next few years and undertaken R&D work with partners to understand and develop options for the future.

To support this continued growth and complexity we have implemented a new portfolio way of working that maximises the flexibility and value we can deliver across our programmes of work.

We’ve progressed 6 further schemes into design and/or build with more planned for the future as monitoring shows they are needed.

This is both for coal and for metals where we continue to work closely with Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) in England and Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in Wales to deliver tangible improvements to water quality by preventing metal mine pollution.

This year we also began partnership work in Scotland with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Dumfries and Galloway Council to improve water quality from historic metal mines. You can read more on our work to tackle mine water pollution in our case study.

We’ve continued to work closely with emergency partners across Great Britain. This year we responded to 603 reported surface hazards, 142 subsidence claims and 55 additional emergency calls.

We have also delivered 368 hours of training and engagement with the 31 local resilience forums and regional resilience partnerships that cover the British coalfield to raise awareness of the work we do and advise on risks, hazards and response. You can read more in our case study.

We recognise that any incident that impacts homes or local areas can be extremely upsetting. We continue to focus on providing an empathetic, supportive and informative service to our customers and communities and to learn promptly where we can do better.

We’ve continued our work for Welsh Government as part of their coal tips safety taskforce to ensure that all higher risk sites have been regularly inspected and maintenance work prioritised for action.

During 2025 to 2026 we undertook 1,118 tip inspections across Great Britain. This includes the 41 tips we own and manage directly in England and Wales and the work we do to support other public bodies and landowners.

We supported Welsh Government with the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Act 2025 and the creation of the Disused Tips Authority for Wales. We look forward to working closely with the new authority in the year ahead.

As Jeff mentions, we have seen the significant impact of extreme weather and a changing climate on our work again this year.

Our teams have continued to adapt and mitigate these incidents to support and protect the communities we serve.

Partnership working has been key to this and I am grateful to all the partners, stakeholders and contractors who have supported our work. We have also done further work on considering the climate related risks and adaptations we will need to continue to make and will publish our climate adaptation plan in 2026.

We have continued to deliver efficient, effective frontline work and emergency response and to build the opportunities of AI, digital and technology into our work.

Examples include:

• enabling rapid adoption of Copilot through targeted training and shared learning
• delivering early productivity benefits in project delivery, task management and written communications
• advanced AI workflows with the Hartree Centre to extract structured data from historical mine plans, increasing the usability and operational value of our core data assets
• we invested in earth observation data and capabilities to improve early detection of ground movement, supporting faster identification of risks and more timely, targeted responses

We will continue to learn and work with others to maximise our effectiveness and the opportunities from our data and information in the year ahead.

This is essential to help us manage risk effectively and continue to ensure that value for money, multiple outcome delivery and enabling growth is embedded in every decision that we take.

We’ve made further progress in enabling mine water heat schemes. This included working with Deloitte to analyse the potential of mine water heat, used in heat networks and large spaces, such as warehouses, as a mainstream heat source for British homes and businesses.

This year the first heat scheme in Wales has gone live at our Lindsay mine water treatment site (Carmarthenshire, South Wales).

We’ve also seen schemes at Seaham Garden Village (Country Durham, England) and Blaydon Leisure Centre and Primary Care Unit (Gateshead) make tangible progress.

Gateshead (NE England) mine water heat network continues to make a real difference for the community, increasing in size to provide heat to more than 645 homes and 24 large buildings, including the Glasshouse and Baltic Arts Centre, with plans to extend to the town centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and thousands more homes, schools and healthcare sites.

A wider pipeline of schemes and feasibility studies is progressing in all 3 nations.

We were pleased to support NHS Scotland and NHS Wales to undertake screening across their estates and we continue to support DESNZ and cities included in heat network zoning.

We continue to engage with both Scottish and Welsh Governments to develop potential opportunities.

In England, our Gateshead Mine Water Heat Living Lab consists of a series of monitoring boreholes and it is the only place in the world where information on multiple operational mine water heat schemes can be collected.

The open access data provides evidence for operators, developers, regulators and investors to better understand how mine water heat schemes can be deployed sustainably.

Delivering value for money, enabling value and generating income to offset costs to the taxpayer remains essential. This year we generated £13 million of income through our advisory services and £395,000 through by-product sales.

We have continued to work closely with local authorities, developers and businesses to support and deliver growth in communities.

This work in 2025 to 2026 enabled 568,815 hectares to be safely developed for local homes, business and industrial use.

We continued to support confidence in the coalfield housing market through our work with financial lenders, insurers and with local residents buying and selling homes.

This year we delivered 106,976 mining reports and provided the data to 7 private resellers, supporting business and enterprise.

You can see our specific progress against our business plan later in this report, which shows what we’ve delivered, what we’ve learnt and where we’ve needed to reprioritise or tweak our approach to reflect additional incident work or a better way of achieving an outcome.

You will see that changes to operational programming on maintenance work at our mine water treatment scheme beds has impacted our ochre recycling rate this year.

This is a key example of where we have taken learning and will be more interconnected in our decision making in future.

It was an honour to be asked to become interim CEO when Lisa Pinney stepped down in April to begin her new role at the Fair Work Agency.

I would like to give thanks to the board, executive team and colleagues across the Mining Remediation Authority for their support and to Lisa for her work and support part-time in the background between April-June.

It is the people of the Mining Remediation Authority who make the organisation a great place to work and their dedication, expertise and customer focus which enables us to manage both the complex challenges we face and see opportunities from the historic assets, our data and information and knowledge.

To support this we will ensure that we continue to attract and retain great people to be capable of delivering across our wide remit. We will continue to invest in development, help our colleagues feel valued and supported, remain inclusive and values-led, and consider how we work as well as what we need to deliver.

Thank you for all that you do. I look forward to continuing to work with you all in the year ahead.

Paul Frammingham, Chief Executive

3. Case study: our work to support safe growth, development and opportunities

Working with partners across Great Britain we ensure safe and sustainable redevelopment, supporting national goals for cleaner energy, efficient transport and improved local infrastructure.

Our permissions and licensing work assists organisations, such as transport providers, water suppliers and local councils, to progress major infrastructure projects where these intersect with historical coal and mine workings.

For example, our work with National Grid on their Great Grid Upgrade – a major modernisation programme of the electricity transmission network across England and Wales – is adding value by ensuring safe routes are planned for new transmission lines, reducing risks and minimising delays to the project’s progress.

We issued 26 permits for work that could disturb or enter coal seams or mine workings for the 60km overhead connection between Chesterfield and Willington in the Midlands.

We will continue to work proactively to support the Great Grid Upgrade, helping the National Grid to secure a resilient energy system that is safe and effective for the long term.

Our collaboration with Severn Trent Water Ltd is supporting their £25 million investment to create a reliable water supply for communities across Stoke-on-Trent.

The project involves the replacement of ageing water pipes with new mains and much of the work takes place in areas where shallow coal may be encountered.

We are enabling them to dig safely and manage risks associated with shallow coal and ensuring appropriate controls remain in place to protect public safety.

We granted an incidental coal agreement covering the full extent of the project works to allow limited excavation where coal is encountered, ensuring it is removed safely and managed in line with regulation.

The agreement supports Severn Trent Water Ltd to respond flexibly to ground conditions and implement the most effective solutions.

To further support this complex project, we established a single point of contact for Severn Trent Water Ltd, simplified application requirements and streamlined processes.

Network Rail’s TransPennine Route Upgrade – a major programme of railway improvements between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York – involves areas with shallow coal and historical mining, which are challenging to manage alongside the installation of new, heavy-duty electrical infrastructure.

We are supporting safe and effective development in these areas by issuing several incidental coal agreements, enabling the excavation of 1,958 tonnes of coal.

Where unrecorded mining features have been encountered we have put in place new agreements to ensure safe development continues.

Our support of this National Rail project will be on-going as it is anticipated that a further 15,200 tonnes of coal will need to be excavated in future phases.

Our mine heat licensing team worked with environmental regulators and partners to put in place a long-term agreement with Gateshead Energy Company for their ongoing mine water heat project.

The agreement provides access to mine workings until 2043, and its length reflects the strength of our partnership working to effectively manage risks, agree operating parameters and create a monitoring plan that provides the necessary assurance.

The agreement builds confidence in mine water heat projects for operators and funding providers, helping to support the wider adoption of these low carbon heating systems.

Our bespoke services and approaches allow us to work proactively and deliver practical solutions that support the redevelopment of land that benefits our communities.

For example at Birtley Lane, County Durham, we are enabling the establishment of new school buildings.

The site here has been subject to historic restrictive covenants which limit how it can be used.

Working with the Department for Education and the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, we have progressed an amendment to the covenants, delivering a positive outcome which will open up investment in local education creating value for the community.

4. Our performance

In the first year of our new 3 year business plan, we have made clear progress against our mission of making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

Our plan is set against our 10 year vision, underpinned by our values and focused on delivering for the communities we serve. The following section shows the progress we have made in 2025 to 2026.

We have used this scorecard to measure and report our progress on our business plan between 2025 and 2028.

4.1 Delivering for the communities we serve

Scorecard outcome: We will continue to improve our frontline delivery services for our customers so that we deliver better outcomes and are easier to do business with.

Business plan targets by April 2028	Our achievements by April 2026
We will take action to protect the drinking water supply of a further 2,400 people (650,000 in total) and improve the water quality of an additional 100km of rivers and streams (350km overall).	We improved an additional 70km of river water quality through our work at Nent Haggs (Cumbria, England). We’ve made good progress in building our new mine water treatment scheme at Thorpe Hesley (South Yorkshire, England) despite impacts from prolonged wet weather over the winter. The scheme will now complete during 2026-27 and protect drinking water for 2,400 people. We partially met our 2026 target.
We will continue to resolve 90% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months.	We resolved 90% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months. We met our 2026 target.
We will further develop our understanding of the scale and complexity of the risk from the recovering mine water from the English super mines. We will undertake research and work with partners to determine appropriate solutions for saline mine water including new technology, water use and large infrastructure options.	We have developed a strategic outline case in relation to a programme of works to determine solutions for saline mine water. This was approved by the DEZNZ Portfolio and Investment Committee (PIC) in June 2025 where the challenge and complexity of the programme was recognised. The programme has progressed as planned during the year – improving understanding and risk and progressing options for future action. We met our 2026 target.
We will use our information, services and expertise to support economic growth through Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and enable 800,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development, including 50,000 new homes in communities on the former coalfields.	Through our planning and permitting services we enabled more than 568,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development to enable growth, including over 34,000 new homes. We exceeded our 2026 target.
We will improve our customer service response times, uphold our ServiceMark accreditation and refine systems and processes through feedback to improve our delivery.	We have implemented our ServiceMark accreditation action plan and increased correspondence response times to 95%, exceeding our 87% goal. We’ve made progress in developing our next 3 year customer plan but due to additional incident response this will now be finalised and published in 2027. We partially met our 2026 target.

The Mining Remediation Authority is a practical 24/7/365 operational emergency response organisation, which delivers a number of core, statutory duties across Great Britain to help keep people, drinking water and the environment safe from the impacts of our mining legacy.

We are committed to doing this in a customer and community focused way.

We act with integrity, do what we say we will and listen and learn so that we can continually improve.

Working with and through partners we provide a joined up response to maximise the outcomes that can be delivered.

This helps us to deliver on our mission to ‘make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas’.

4.2 Ensure sustainability

Scorecard outcome: We will further embed sustainability across our work to deliver positive benefit for communities and improve efficiency and value for money.

Business plan targets by April 2028	Our achievements by April 2026
We will accelerate our renewable energy programme, delivering measures at a minimum of 2 sites per year as part of our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% from our 2017 to 2018 baseline (included in our sustainability plan 2023-26 commitment before latest 2025 to 2030 GGC figures were available).	We prioritised repairs and panel replacements at our existing solar sites during 2026 to 2027 so the rollout of our next 2 additional sites was delayed. We have undertaken feasibility studies on a further 3 sites to develop our pipeline of future sites and have developed plans for battery storage at 2 sites. Our greenhouse gas emissions remain broadly in line with those of last year against our 2017 to 2018 baseline. Our 2025 to 2026 emissions will form the baseline for our reduction targets for the new Greening Government Commitment (GGC) 2026 to 2030. We partially met our 2026 target.
We will publish our climate adaptation plan and progress the actions to improve resilience and adaptation to climate risks and impacts	We have made good progress on developing our climate adaptation plan, taking learning from the additional impacts of a changing climate that we have experienced and responded to this year. To ensure that we can fully consider this learning and prioritise key action and adaptation identified, the plan will now be published in 2026 to 2027. We partially met our 2026 target.
We will continue to deliver our nature recovery programme, building on initial benchmarking to develop practical plans on a prioritised basis across our estate and take action by embedding nature-friendly management practices and working with partners to maximise the natural assets of our estate in an efficient way	We have continued to deliver strongly against our nature recovery plan which sits below our sustainability plan 2023 to 2026. We have worked in partnership with others to deliver habitat improvements on one site and identified opportunities for future partnership working. Management guidance has been developed for all 82 mine water treatment schemes to support our colleagues and contractors to manage these sites in a nature-positive way. 83% of operational sites containing habitats have been surveyed. We met our 2026 target.
We will develop, implement and report on social value targets across the work we do	We have developed social value actions for our next sustainability plan (2026 to 29) and have developed and shared case studies to evidence the social value we have delivered during 2025 to 2026. We met our 2026 target.
We will make clear progress against the 2025 to 2030 GGC to reduce our impact on the environment and our costs in these areas	We have re-baselined our GGC against the new 2026 to 2030 UK government guidance and commitments ready for 2026 to 2027 reporting. We’ve improved our evidence base and understanding which will help drive further improvements. All this has informed our next sustainability plan (2026 to 2029). We met our 2026 target

We’re committed to becoming a more sustainable organisation and use our work to help deliver positive change in the communities we support, as well as driving efficiency and value for money in the work we do.

We have continued to deliver on the final year of our sustainability plan 2023 to 2026 and have launched our new sustainability plan 2026 to 2029, which further embeds change through ensuring circular economy principles and environmental and social value are at the heart of our thinking and decision-making processes.

We have continued to work towards further decarbonising our activities and ensure that our assets are operating at optimal efficiency.

We are taking action to make us more resilient to the impacts of climate change across our operations as well as supporting the valuable habitats that exist on our sites by managing our sites and estate for nature’s recovery.

4.3 Work with others to create value

Scorecard outcome: We will generate more value and deliver wider environmental and social benefit from our assets, services and work.

Business plan targets by April 2028	Our achievements by April 2026
We will influence and enable 3 more large operational mine water heat schemes across Great Britain and encourage smaller schemes and new technologies.	We have enabled progress at a number of schemes, supported and enabled critical R&D and strengthened the future pipeline and support for mine water heating, cooling and storage. 2 new schemes are close to completion but will now go live in 2026 to 2027. We partially met our 2026 target.
We will Increase our service delivery to partners by 30% from our 2024 to 2025 baseline of £5.3 million a year	We have increased our service delivery to partners by more than 25% from our 2024 to 2025 baseline. We exceeded our 2026 target
We will reuse or recycle the iron ochre and iron solids generated from our mine water treatment schemes to ensure that less than 3% goes to landfill.	Changes to the reedbed maintenance programme schedule meant that less material was produced this year. This made the complex ochre wastes, which we do not currently have a product or recycled option for, a higher percentage of our overall waste. We have taken learning and are continuing to look for innovative options for these more challenging materials. We have not met our 2026 target.
We will deliver the commitments in our mine water heat and by-product opportunity frameworks	We have delivered the year 2 commitments in both our mine water heat and by-products opportunity frameworks. This continues to deliver income to offset costs to the taxpayer, reduce waste and maximise benefit and social value from our nationalised assets. We met our 2026 target.
We will evolve our services and partnerships, in support of government policy, to continue to provide confidence to those involved with buying and selling homes and property in coalfield areas	We have continued to evolve and work with others to support government policy and ensure confidence in conveyancing on the coalfield. We’re working with financial lenders, surveyors and estate agents to support confidence and with partners to develop further digital solutions and support government initiatives for faster and more digital property transactions. We met our 2026 target.

Delivering value for the taxpayer alongside opportunities for social and environmental value, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness is key to our thinking at the Mining Remediation Authority.

This includes seeking innovation, developing and selling products, and delivering services for the public and private sectors to provide good value and mitigate costs for the taxpayer.

We’re passionate about supporting past mining communities and use our information, skills and expertise to give confidence to those who live and work in these areas and to enable opportunity and benefit from mining legacy.

4.4 Create a great place to work.

Scorecard outcome: We will be an employer of choice with great people who feel empowered, use our values to inform their work, and take real pride in delivering the essential and complex work we do for the communities we serve.

Business plan targets by April 2028	Our achievements by April 2026
We will continue to make demonstrable progress in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce reflective of the communities we serve across Great Britain, improving social mobility and providing opportunities for individuals who live in mining communities.	We have implemented an early careers framework to support social mobility and provide opportunities for individuals in mining communities through apprenticeships and paid internships. We met our 2026 target.
We will provide opportunities for our colleagues to grow and develop their skills and expertise including support for professional development, formal accreditation and apprenticeships.	We provided further opportunities for colleagues to grow and develop their skills through our internal learning system and the wider Government Campus and continued to support formal accreditation and apprenticeships. We met our 2026 target.
We will demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of the public, our colleagues and our partners and supply chain through external benchmarking.	We launched our 2025-28 health, safety and wellbeing plan which reflects our ongoing commitment to protecting people, supporting communities, and enabling safe, sustainable growth across former mining areas. We delivered priority actions from year one of the new plan, and a full review of options for further external benchmarking following our previous British Safety Council Occupational Health and Safety Audit 5-star review was completed. We paused some in-year behavioural safety actions to prioritise ongoing operational activity and incident response. We partially met our 2026 target
We will strive to maintain an employee survey engagement score above 70%.	We’ve continued to make good progress against the agreed key actions and themes from our 2024 people survey and continue to prepare for our 2026 people survey. We met our 2026 target.

Our people are key to our delivery across Great Britain.

We work with a wide range of customers, communities, partners and supply chain contractors to deliver our work and enable the priorities of the UK government, Welsh Government and Scottish Government.

This includes the UK government priorities on safe growth and development, economic growth and making the UK a clean energy superpower.

To do this well we need a diverse workforce with a range of technical skills and a mix of experience and new perspectives to ensure we can keep taking practical action on the ground.

We ensure that we have people with the skills, confidence and empathy to support communities and solve the complex problems that we face on a 24/7/365 basis.

4.5 Make us fit for the future

Scorecard outcome: We will continue to develop modern, resilient processes and systems that are fit for the future. These will support our people to work more efficiently and effectively to deliver for the communities we serve.

Business plan targets by April 2028	Our achievements by April 2026
We will empower our people to deliver more efficiently through streamlined processes and smarter use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI)	We continued the rollout of AI and productivity tools (including Microsoft Copilot 365) and have embedded our AI policy. We completed a collaborative AI project with the Hartree Centre to develop an automated workflow to capture mining features from the historical paper-based records in our national archive. We have made good progress with key projects from our agreed fit for the future plan to enable our people to deliver more efficiently. We paused work on our new asset management system to prioritise operational resource on the implementation of the new operations and maintenance contract. We partially met our 2026 target
We will drive more efficient and effective delivery by continuing to embed our approach to portfolio, programme and project management	We continued the development of our project, programme and portfolio practices, including introducing a phased approach to increase our maturity over the business plan period. We established a portfolio governance approach for increased efficiency and effectiveness in decision making. We met our 2026 target
We will improve and develop new digital services around user needs, leading to higher levels of satisfaction and positive customer experiences	We implemented improved customer journeys for our public facing services and better connected people to their mining heritage by publishing our mine plans online and agreeing an approach for sharing our photo archive. We met our 2026 target
We will deliver our 2024 to 2027 data and information plan, modernising and improving access to our data to support growth and enable wider outcomes for the environment and for the communities we serve	We have delivered the second year of our data and information plan and started a new data improvement programme. This has increased the ways that stakeholders can access our data and implemented new data standards for managing and delivering data. We met our 2026 target

We have set out a high level of ambition through our vision and our business plan which are enabled through effective and customer focused systems and approaches, consistent and effective guidance, frameworks and skills development for our people to support them to feel empowered to drive effective delivery, as well as proportionate planning, governance and assurance to enable increased efficiency.

These support us to provide the core services that protect life, keep drinking water and the environment safe and allow us to maximise opportunities to create social and environmental value alongside value for the taxpayer.

Our data and information underpins every piece of work we do as an organisation and helps others to make informed decisions, including conveyancing with confidence on the coalfield.

5. Our work in Scotland

5.1 Our year in Scotland

1,795 mine entry inspections carried out

44,870 mining reports delivered

28 billion litres of mine water treated

106 mining hazard, subsidence claims and emergency calls investigated and assessed

1,079 planning consultation responses provided

730 tonnes of iron solids prevented from entering water courses

5.2 Case study: incident response in Dalkeith

Working with others to ensure public safety and achieve the best possible outcomes for local communities is at the heart of how we respond to incidents arising from historical mining activity.

As a 24/7 operational organisation we work to keep people, property, drinking water and the environment safe from the impacts of mining legacy.

In January we responded to a critical incident at Dalkeith in Midlothian, Scotland.

While working to construct a new mine water treatment scheme in the area, our contractor noticed that mine water had stopped discharging from the local outfall from the Old Fordell drainage tunnel, which collects and discharges water from a large area of historical underground mine workings.

This was immediately investigated and we realised that there was a blockage in the drainage tunnel.

Urgent action was taken to assess and monitor the rising mine water levels in the area and emergency works were carried out to ensure mine water could be pumped from an upstream location and piped back to discharge into the river using a temporary, over land, pipeline.

This work controlled the rising mine water levels and protected the community.

We actively worked with local partners to mitigate potential risks and resolve the situation.

This included sharing information and co-ordinating multi-agency meetings through the regional resilience partnership to discuss and agree the best ways forward for local people and their environment.

We issued daily situation reports, a live map of our response activity, and communications for partners, stakeholders and residents that other organisations could use to engage with the local community in a consistent way.

For example, this helped the local authority to explain road closures, traffic changes and temporary diversions and be clear on why these measures were needed.

Our prompt action together reduced the risk of a dangerous blow-out and protected life, property and the environment.

We are now working to design a long-term mine water transfer which will link with the new mine water treatment scheme and reduce pollution and risk to the local area in perpetuity.

Throughout the incident and since, we have worked closely with the local community and partners to provide regular updates.

We’ve held public meetings and put in place a dedicated local community liaison officer to support local people and ensure their concerns and ideas for improvement are heard and acted upon.

We’re so grateful to the local community who have been extremely patient with the disruption to their local area and shared both local mining knowledge and feedback with us.

This has meant we could work with partners to minimise disruption to residents and local businesses wherever possible and ensure that additional support is provided to vulnerable residents where needed.

Mine water levels in the area are safely controlled by our pumping operations and we are now working to design and construct a permanent mine water transfer.

This will link with the new mine water treatment scheme to protect the River South Esk and reduce pollution and risk to the local area in perpetuity.

It will improve water quality, improve habitat and biodiversity and enhance the area’s natural beauty for the community to enjoy.

6.  Financial review

We have continued strong delivery in a year of extreme weather and our incident response and public safety work has continued to increase, reflecting the scale of the legacy we manage while keeping people safe and providing peace of mind.

We have increased investment in our mine water treatment schemes, safeguarding water quality and the environment and ensuring our assets remain resilient into the future.

We continue to grow income from our advisory services, working with partners to understand and manage their risks and provide clear, trusted information to help people make informed decisions.

We have worked closely with DESNZ to communicate the risks and sensitivities behind our funding requirements and have delivered in line with our forecasts.

Grant in aid received from DESNZ in the year was £83.2 million (2024 to 2025: £75.1 million) reflecting our larger and more complex programmes and an increase in the net cost of our operations as outlined below.

This is explained and illustrated by the following graphic (note that a significant proportion of this cost was provided for in previous years as explained at note 12 of the financial statements and is not charged directly to the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure in the year).

Working with our partners we delivered our largest ever capital programme to protect watercourses, drinking water aquifers and reduce flood risk.

Revenue expenditure on our schemes has increased, reflecting our ongoing work to understand and assess the best options for managing inland saline mine water and ensuring that protection of watercourses and aquifers is delivered in the most cost effective and cost beneficial way.

Our ongoing efficiency programmes will minimise the future cost of running mine water schemes by employing innovative uses for our by-products.

This includes extending the use of our ochre by-product in the anaerobic digestion market and generating other operational efficiencies led by our investment in renewables to reduce power costs and contribute to achieving our carbon reduction commitments.

We expect these activities to deliver an incremental £4.9 million over the next 4-year period.

Our expenditure on public safety is reactive and can vary from year to year.

2025 to 2026 expenditure remains at a level consistent to previous years, reflecting the work we have undertaken to resolve a number of significant claims and incidents including projects to remediate mining features affecting energy infrastructure in Glasgow and properties in Dewar Avenue, Kincardine, Fife.

Our advisory and technical services work generated income of £13 million (2024 to 2025: £10 million), reflecting our continued success in working with others to deliver real outcomes across government.

This includes mine water scheme delivery for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in England and for Welsh Government, as well as supporting Welsh Government with the safe management of tips.

Mining reports income of £6.2 million is slightly lower than last year (2024 to 2025: £6.7 million).

This reflects a loss in market share as a result of our policy to make our data available and open up the market from a near monopoly position, with a small off-set as a result of a small amount of growth in the property market and volume of transactions.

6.1 How we used our money in 2024 to 2025

Our income from	2025 to 2026	2024 to 2025
Mining reports	£6.2 million	£6.7 million
Advisory and technical services	£13 million	£10 million
By-products and other commercial innovation	£400,000	£200,000
Licensing and permissions indemnities	£1.3 million	£1 million
Data licensing and mining information	£2.7 million	£2.3 million
Property related	£900,000	£1.1 million
Other income	£200,000	£200,000
Working capital	£3.1 million	£800,000
Grant in aid (DESNZ or Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)	£83.2 million	£75.1 million
Total income	£111 million	£97.4 million

Our spend on	2025 to 2026	2024 to 2025
Public safety and subsidence	£25.9 million	£26.3 million
Mine water schemes	£37.5 million	£33.2 million
Subsidence pumping stations	£2 million	£2.2 million
Planning, licensing, permissions and property	£4.9 million	£5.4 million
Reports, data, digital and information	£11.6 million	£10.3 million
Mine heat, innovation and services	£2.7 million	£2.2 million
Mine water schemes programme (capital)	£24.7 million	£16.1 million
Subsidence pumping stations programme (capital)	£900,000	£700,000
Other (capital)	£1.3 million	£2.2 million
Total spend	£111 million	£97.4 million

Our operating income per the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure of £24.7 million is the total of the income figures above excluding grant in aid and working capital movements.

Our operating expenditure per the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure, adjusted for non-cash related items (provisions utilisation, depreciation, revaluation and impairment charges) of £84.1 million and investment in our capital programmes of £26.9 million is the total of the spend figures above.

Our operating income and expenditure align to our operational segments. For further information also see note 3 income, note 2 expenditure and for capital investment note 5 and note 7.

2024 to 2025 figures have been represented for consistency with the current year.

6.2 Financial statements

Our financial statements are dominated by the provisions balance of £1,571 million.

The rationale and methodology for calculating this are shown at note 12 to the financial statements.

As in previous years and in line with our accounting policy, this provision for resolving the impacts of past coal mining was reviewed at the end of the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

This balance has reduced by £138 million (2024 to 2025: increase of £98 million).

In line with accounting practice we adjust our cash flows to reflect the time value of money based on assumptions and rates provided by HM Treasury.

This year’s change in rates has led to a reduction of £191 million (2024 to 2025: reduction of £59 million).

Our underlying cash flows, on which the provisions balance is calculated, have been updated based on latest information and have increased by £89.6 million to £4,150 million.

This recognises increases as a result of updates following the review of mine water scheme programme costs and phasing, as well as reflecting the trend over recent years of managing an increasing number of complex public safety incidents, although this has been partially off-set following review and update of the operational and maintenance costs of our subsidence pumping stations programme.

This change in underlying cash flows, after adjusting for the time value of money, has the effect of increasing the provisions balance by £53 million.

6.3 Statement of comprehensive net expenditure

Comprehensive net income for the year to 31 March 2026 was £69.5 million (2024 to 2025: net expenditure £170.7 million).

The large difference between the 2 years is driven by the provisions movements outlined above.

Excluding these provisions movements, comprehensive net expenditure for the year was £32.8 million (2024 to 2025: £35.5 million), a reduction of £2.7 million.

The reasons behind this movement are outlined below.

6.4 Total operating income

Total operating income, which excludes grant in aid, was £24.7 million (2024 to 2025: £21.5 million) and reflects our ongoing strategy to work collaboratively with public sector organisations to support them in managing their risks, while promoting competition in the mining reports market and enabling others to use our data and information to make informed decisions.

Our advisory and technical services income has risen by £3 million, to £13 million.

This is driven by expanded metal mine programmes that we deliver for Defra in England and for Welsh Government.

A loss of market share during the year, partially off-set by a 5% year-on-year increase in the size of the market, has resulted in a £0.5 million reduction in mining reports income to £6.2 million, while data licensing and mining information income has increased by £0.4 million to £2.7 million.

Other movements in our income from 2024 to 2025 relate to the licensing and permissions indemnities (£0.3 million increase), by-products (£0.2 million increase), profit on disposal of property (£0.3 million reduction) and minor changes in rental and other income (£0.1 million increase).

6.5 Expenditure

Staff costs of £33 million show an increase of £4.8 million compared to the previous year.

Pay award, at 3.5% in line with civil service pay remit guidance, accounts for £1 million.

The remainder of this increase is driven by headcount needed to deliver paid for advisory services to our customers and deliver increased frontline services for the communities we serve.

This includes protecting the environment through the delivery of our mine water scheme programme and feasibility work to assess options to manage inland salinity.

Purchase of goods and services (not including frontline costs provided in previous years) increased by £2.5 million to £15.4 million. This is driven by supply chain costs that support the increase in our advisory and technical services income.

Depreciation, revaluation and impairment charges have reduced by £7 million to £8.9 million.

Key movements include a reduction in impairments of £7.3 million, reflecting the timing of completing mine water scheme builds (whereby, under our accounting policy we immediately impair schemes to nil net book value when they become operational), off-set by a £0.3 million increase covering depreciation, amortisation and revaluations.

More information is available in notes 2 and 3, as well as notes 5 and 6 to the financial statements.

6.6 Statement of financial position

Net liabilities at £1,543.6 million decreased by £152.7 million (2024 to 2025: £1,696.3 million). Key factors were:

• provisions against future liabilities have reduced by £138 million following review and as outlined above (further information is available at note 12 to the financial statements)

• an £18 million increase in total non-current assets to £46.5 million (2024 to 2025 £28.5 million) that is predominantly driven by 2 new mine water schemes that are under construction

• trade receivables have increased by £1 million to £7.2 million (2024 to 2025: £6.2 million), primarily due to the timing of payment from Defra and Welsh Government for advisory and technical services in relation to their metal mine water scheme programmes

• cash and cash equivalents stand at £22.3 million (2024 to 2025: £21.2 million) (see the section below on cash flow for details on movements)

• trade and other payables have increased by £5.4 million to £49.1 million (2024 to 2025: £43.7 million), with the main driver being accrued expenditure relating to increased public safety and mine water schemes expenditure

6.7 Cash flow

At 31 March 2026 we held £22.3 million cash (2025: £21.2 million).

This includes £1.3 million (2025: £1.4 million) of ring fenced funds in respect of security called in from mining operators that have been liquidated.

There was a net increase in cash during the year of £1.1 million. Constituent parts of this movement were:

• the receipt of £83.2 million grant in aid from the DESNZ, an increase of £8.1 million (2024 to 2025: £75.1 million receipt) – the cash drawn down from the department covers working capital requirements relating to 3 main areas: the operation of our mine water schemes, managing public safety claims and incidents and the delivery of our capital programmes

• a net cash outflow from operating activities of £57.3 million (2024 to 2025: £50.8 million) – we have spent £6.5 million more this year on our operations driven by our mine water programmes, including continuing our detailed work to generate and evaluate the most cost effective and sustainable options for future treatment of inland saline mine water and in managing public safety claims and incidents

• a net cash outflow from investing activities of £24 million, an increase of £6 million on prior year (2024 to 2025: £18.0 million) – this primarily relates to the purchase of property, plant and equipment as part of our growing programme to develop, build and maintain mine water schemes and subsidence pumping stations, as well as ongoing investment in our information technology and systems

• a net cash outflow from financing activities of £0.8 million (2024 to 2025: £0.8 million), which relates to the payment of lease liabilities.

6.8 Going concern

To the extent that they are not met from our other sources of income, our liabilities may only be met by future grants or grants in aid from our sponsor department, DESNZ.

This is because, under the normal conventions applying to parliamentary control over income and expenditure, such grants may not be issued in advance of need.

Paragraph 14(1) of Schedule 1 to the Coal Industry Act 1994, states: “The Secretary of State shall, in respect of each accounting year, pay to the Coal Authority such amount as he may determine to be the amount required by the Coal Authority for the carrying out during that year of its functions under this Act.”

On that basis, the board has a reasonable expectation that we’ll continue to receive funding so as to be able to meet our liabilities.

We’ve therefore prepared our financial statements on a going concern basis.

7. Our work in Wales

7.1 Our year in Wales

2,639 mine entry inspections carried out

6,408 mining reports delivered

15 billion litres of mine water treated

150 mining hazard, subsidence claims and emergency calls investigated and assessed

1,111 planning consultation responses provided

355 tonnes of iron solids prevented from entering water courses

7.2 Case study: turning Wales’s mining past into a clean energy future

Working in partnership with the Welsh Government, we delivered Wales’s first mine water heat opportunity maps – a detailed national dataset showing where mine water heat can have the greatest impact.

These maps are now a central part of the Welsh Government’s Heat Strategy for Wales and are actively supporting local area energy planning and decarbonisation conversations across the country.

A key opportunity was identified at our Lindsay mine water treatment scheme, near Ammanford in Carmarthenshire.

Partnering with local renewable heat specialist Thermal Earth Ltd – and supported by Innovate UK funding – we helped develop and deliver Wales’s first mine water heat scheme for a commercial building.

Planning and design stages were completed in 6 months, with construction taking little more than 2 weeks.

The system is the first in the UK to use submersible heat exchangers in one of the mine water scheme treatment lagoons to capture mine water heat.

It now supplies low carbon heating and hot water to a nearby industrial unit and offices, replacing liquefied petroleum gas systems and saving an estimated 17.5 tonnes of CO2 every year.

The results have exceeded expectations. The system operates at more than 400% efficiency and has cut running costs by around 60%.

The scheme, which was shortlisted for the 2025 Collaborate to Innovate Awards, has attracted national attention. Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning Rebecca Evans MS both visited the site, praising Lindsay as a leading example of how Wales can turn its industrial past into sustainable energy solutions.

Their support underlines what the project demonstrates: when policy ambition, technical expertise and local innovation work together, the results can be exceptional.

Building on Lindsay’s success, we have begun scoping work to identify NHS sites across Wales with the potential to benefit from this low carbon technology.

We have also begun looking at the feasibility of using waste mine water heat from our Morlais treatment scheme to provide heat to schools, social housing and other mixed development, with our partners from Carmarthenshire Council and Welsh Government.

Lindsay exemplifies our mine water heat development approach: secure, low carbon heat delivered sustainably, reliably and affordably, while revitalising industrial sites and supporting Wales’s Just Transition to clean energy.

8. Health, safety and wellbeing

During the year we launched our health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) plan for 2025 to 2028, setting out how we will manage risk and support wellbeing as we deliver for the communities we serve.

We responded to a range of public safety incidents working with partners and contractors to protect people and the environment.

We continued to strengthen our management arrangements, updating procedures so they remain clear, practical and aligned to our operational needs.

Our HSW plan for 2025 to 28 reinforces our commitment to protecting the public, our colleagues and those working on our behalf.

It sets out how we will maintain strong governance and assurance while supporting a positive culture where everyone takes responsibility for health, safety and wellbeing.

The plan focuses our work through 3 enablers:

• developing our safety focused culture: promoting safe behaviours, encouraging colleagues to speak up, and learning from events to prevent harm

• technology and innovation: using data and digital tools to identify hazards, assess risk, share information and support better decisions

• safe delivery through others: setting clear expectations for partners and our supply chain, maintaining oversight, and sharing learning so work is delivered safely.

We are delivering the plan through targeted engagement and assurance activity, supported by guidance and training, so teams understand what is expected and how it applies to their roles.

Technology and innovation is a key enabler within the HSW plan 2025 to 2028.

During the year we prioritised improvements to our HSW reporting system to make it easier to identify hazards, record actions and access management information.

This included improving our dynamic risk assessment for colleagues travelling to site, enabling a short, structured check to be completed before starting work, which supports consistent risk management and reinforces personal responsibility.

We piloted self-serve dashboards to provide timely information and improved how leadership visits are recorded and followed up.

These changes are supported by guidance and training, and they increase our visibility of hazards and actions so we can target support where it is most needed.

We respond to a high volume of incidents throughout the year and were particularly challenged at the start of 2026, with several complex and high-profile incidents occurring at the same time.

We worked closely with our supply chain partners and other responders to ensure robust arrangements were in place to safeguard the HSW of our colleagues, contractor workforces and local communities.

While teams were delivering our incident response, we enhanced wellbeing support and maintained HSW oversight through critical incident meetings.

This included prioritising specialist resources, allocating teams to specific incidents and maintaining business-as-usual activity through wider organisational support.

We will continue to capture learning from these events and apply it to improve our arrangements and maintain a safety focused culture across the organisation and our supply chain.

We continue to invest in our people so they have the knowledge, skills and support to undertake their roles safely and protect their health and wellbeing.

Some of our work is delivered in challenging conditions, including emergency response activity.

During the year we increased our focus on building capability and confidence, including Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) training to help colleagues prepare for and manage the demands of these situations.

We delivered 12 cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) workshops, reaching 107 colleagues, with our staff engagement group playing a key role in planning and delivery.

This builds emergency response capability and confidence to act quickly if someone becomes unwell. We supported training, including a National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) risk assessment course, to build risk awareness ahead of site visits and continue to work with Mines Rescue for specialist confined spaces training. Increasing the use of our learning platform to provide a single place for most HSW training is making it easier to access and improving visibility for line managers.

Our HSW management system continues to develop to reflect our risk profile and changing operational demands.

The HSW team works with colleagues across the business to ensure our arrangements are documented, understood and applied consistently.

For example, as we have introduced a new tech room to provide an in-house water testing facility, we have jointly developed safe systems of work and procedures to support safe operation.

We will continue to strengthen our procedures and assurance arrangements, including for higher risk activities, through established governance routes.

Our 2025 to 2026 HSW data continues to demonstrate strong proactive reporting and a clear focus on learning and prevention.

A total of 1,387 observations relating to unsafe acts or conditions and 594 examples of good practice were reported by colleagues and contractors, reflecting a healthy reporting culture and shared ownership of safety.

There has been an increase in formal HSW inspections undertaken by colleagues, with 490 completed during the year.

Alongside this, 833 HSW actions were raised and tracked through the HSW management system.

This provides clear assurance that issues identified through observations and inspections are followed through to completion.

The volume of inspections and actions shows a more mature and embedded approach to managing risk and driving continuous improvement.

We continue to aspire to zero accidents and incidents.

During the year there were 13 accidents with no time lost and no lost time accidents recorded.

There were no Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) reportable incidents for colleagues or contractors.

Every accident and near miss is taken seriously, with a full review undertaken to identify learning and ensure improvements are embedded to help everyone stay safe.

Proactive measures	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
HSW observation unsafe acts or conditions (staff and contractors)	1387	1224
HSW observations – good practice examples (staff and contractors)	594	486
HSW inspections (staff)	490	293
HSW actions (staff and contractors)	833	594

Reactive measures	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
Accidents – no time lost (staff and contractors)	13	13
Accidents – lost time (staff and contactors)	0	0
Incidents – RIDDOR (staff and contractors)	0	1

9. Our work in England

9.1 Our year in England

7,661 mine entry inspections carried out

55,698 mining reports delivered

93 billion litres of mine water treated

544 mining hazard, subsidence claims and emergency calls investigated and assessed

5,855 planning consultation responses provided

2,627 tonnes of iron solids prevented from entering water courses

9.2 Case study: Camberwell Drive, Ashton-under-Lyne

A core part of our mission is managing Great Britain’s mining legacy and safeguarding communities by providing incident response and remediation solutions to mining related subsidence.

During 2025 to 2026 we have worked with Tameside Council, and other key partners, to design and deliver a safe permanent solution following a ground collapse at Camberwell Drive, Ashton-under-Lyne.

This is one of our most significant public safety projects and has been shaped by local input from the very beginning.

The ground collapse resulted from movement of material above a mine shaft associated with the former Limehurst Colliery, which operated in the area from 1852 to 1899.

Entry to the mine shaft was about 50 metres below ground and our records indicate that the shaft was backfilled in the 1960s.

More recently, a housing developer grouted the shaft in 1989, before a cap was placed across the top of the shaft to completely seal it.

Unfortunately, despite these measures, movement in the ground above the shaft required us to take action to ensure the stability of the local area.

The depth of the shaft, and limited space on the circular housing estate, made the project complex and challenging, for both our teams and local residents.

The design and approach of our remediation works was developed directly in response to what residents told us mattered most, and partnership was at the heart of how we worked throughout.

We kept people informed and consulted with them at each stage.

We held community events in the early evening to support working residents and parents to attend, and these events provided the local community with opportunities to review the plans, ask questions and raise any concerns about the work.

We met some residents individually to understand their personal circumstances, providing extra support where needed.

Before work began, we diverted essential services and installed a safety platform; at 36.5 metres long, this was the largest platform we have used, requiring a 300-tonne crane to position it.

This platform was central to the project. It gave our team the insight needed to carefully navigate complex ground conditions, and crucially, helped us locate the mining shaft, giving us the confidence to move the project forward safely.

We stabilised the mineshaft by injecting grout from 60 metres below ground level up to the surface, creating a solid plug to prevent further ground movement.

Now that ground stabilisation is complete, we are constructing the permanent concrete cap supported by 36 reinforced concrete piles.

The 15-square-metre cap is designed to carry heavy loads and permanently secure the mine shaft.

These works have been complex, but we have worked hard to minimise disruption and to manage the site to the highest standards.

Protecting public property and ensuring public safety has been our priority at all times, and care and respect for the local area has been central to how we have approached this project from day one.

As we near completion, we are proud to be delivering a long-term community-focused solution that the local area can rely on for years to come.

10. Our people

Our people are essential to our frontline work and emergency response and to delivering the best service possible for the communities we serve.

Their hard work and expertise enable us to tackle complex problems, support customers effectively, and maximise what we can achieve.

To support them, we have invested in targeted learning and development to build the skills they need now and in the future.

This investment strengthens capability across the organisation, improves confidence in leadership and management practice, and supports internal progression.

As a result, colleagues are better equipped to respond to operational demands, manage change and deliver essential frontline services.

Listening to colleagues remains central to our approach.

Our great place to work programme, now in its fifth year, uses colleague feedback to inform decision-making, improve processes and introduce efficiencies that enable people to focus on operational delivery.

Using structured engagement approaches, including facilitated discussions and feedback channels, we support open communication and continuous improvement.

We continue to make strong, sustained progress in embedding inclusion into everyday practice, supported by clear plans, consistent leadership and transparent reporting.

The launch of our everyday inclusion plan and antiracism priorities further strengthens our equality, diversity and inclusion approach providing a shared framework for how we lead, work together and deliver services.

Our 2025 pay gap analysis shows strong and sustained progress, with gender and ethnicity pay gaps nearly halved, disability and bonus gaps improving, and performance comparing favourably with national benchmarks.

Representation across protected characteristics continues to improve, reflecting the way inclusion is embedded within our recruitment, development, reward and support processes.

Our commitment to social mobility remains strong.

We offer apprenticeships and early careers pathways, working with local schools, colleges and universities to promote work experience and internship opportunities.

Apprentices are supported to understand our work, contribute to key projects and gain meaningful learning experiences that reinforce their role in delivering worthwhile work.

We strengthened organisational effectiveness through a number of key initiatives, including the launch of BrightMines, our organisation wide ideas scheme, which encourages innovation and efficiency ideas from across the business.

Our values in action framework was further developed, helping colleagues translate organisational values into everyday behaviours, supporting better collaboration and more effective delivery of projects and services for customers and communities.

Developing capability remained a priority throughout the year.

The range of learning and development opportunities available within Core, our learning platform, launched in March 2025, has expanded, giving colleagues greater access to both formal and informal learning that is relevant to their roles and personal objectives.

This supports internal talent mobility and enables colleagues to progress into new roles.

Our leadership programmes strengthen capability and consistency in how teams are led and work is delivered, and support internal progression, helping us to fill roles as needs arise.

The Lead Together programme reinforces inclusive leadership behaviours, enabling leaders to support effective team performance aligned with organisational priorities.

The early careers programme continues to strengthen our future talent pipeline, supporting knowledge transfer, organisational resilience and new perspectives that drive innovation and continuous improvement.

Our workforce planning activity is shaped by organisational priorities and workforce data and insight allow us to focus effort where it has the greatest impact.

We use it to support succession planning and targeted development in areas where skills are scarce or specialist capability is critical to delivery.

Aligning workforce planning with future capability needs enables us to more confidently plan and sustain delivery of our services.

We strengthened governance through the development of a policies playbook, which helps to deliver a consistent and transparent approach to policy management and support fair and effective people management practices.

In response to the Employment Rights Act 2025, we are updating policies and equipping managers with guidance and training.

The wellbeing of our people is essential to our impact.

We continue to develop colleague led networks, including the launch of our family and carers network and accessibility network, which provide practical peer support, helping colleagues balance work and personal commitments and navigate challenges.

Our mental health first aiders and employee assistance programme continue to offer accessible, on demand support that assists colleagues in managing day to day pressures and helps maintain their wellbeing at work.

Our focus is on being a great place to work, one where our people feel valued, included and supported.

Through skills and confidence building, embedding inclusion, and developing effective leadership we create an environment where everyone can thrive and is enabled to deliver our services, support our communities and respond to complex challenges as they arise across Great Britain.

11. Case study: Our work to enhance environmental and social value

We manage mine water in Great Britain to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers and the sea.

To do this, we operate and maintain 82 mine water treatment schemes, 10 subsidence pumping stations and collect and store data from more than 700 monitoring points.

Delivering our environmental programmes sustainably is key to our approach and allows us to be more efficient, effective and achieve better value for money.

Our programmes include the design, construction and operation of treatment schemes.

This includes the removal of an ochre by-product from our settlement lagoons that is created during the treatment process and refurbishment of the reedbeds at our sites, to make sure they continue to perform effectively.

We also drill boreholes to monitor rising mine water levels to protect vital drinking water aquifers.

Our sustainability goals and social value ambitions aligned to these programmes are deliberately stretching and encourage us to be ambitious in what we can achieve together with our colleagues, partners and supply chain.

Construction is nearing completion at our Thorpe Hesley mine water treatment scheme, near Rotherham.

It plays a key part of our strategy in managing rising mine water across the Yorkshire coalfield and it will contribute to the protection of water resources which are able to supply the equivalent of more than 550,000 people’s domestic water usage.

During construction, we worked hard to make the project work for local people and the social value initiatives we were able to deliver included the diversion of a public right of way and bridleway to make it safer and more accessible for everyone using it.

After engaging with, and listening to, the equestrian community within the area, we learned that the colour of traditional construction barriers can startle horses.

Therefore, we changed the colour of our barriers – a small adjustment that gave the riders peace of mind and protected the wellbeing of the animals.

Owl and bat boxes were installed in and about the site, as well as tree and shrub planting around the perimeter of the scheme.

This screens the treatment facility from the nearby village of Scholes and allows us to enhance nature and biodiversity across the land we manage.

Community involvement has been central to this project from the start.

A reed planting day drew strong interest from residents and a nearby primary school, with participants contributing directly to creating new habitats at the site.

We have now completed habitat surveys at 65 of our mine water treatment schemes across England, Scotland, and Wales, allowing us to develop a detailed ecological management plan for each site.

Each site has an individual survey report and a habitat map, forming a natural asset data resource to support our future decision-making.

Reedbeds are essential to how some of our treatment schemes function.

They filter pollutants from mine water, but over time they get clogged with material and become less effective.

Regular refurbishment gives them the chance to recover and keeps our schemes performing well.

It also helps to maintain habitats for birds, such as reed bunting.

When we remove the built-up ochre material from our treatment lagoons, in a process called desludging, we look for innovative alternatives to landfill.

This includes its use within the anaerobic digestion industry, replacing the need to import man-made products from Europe, helping to cut the carbon emissions associated with producing and transporting the product to the UK.

The ochre product is used to capture hydrogen sulphide, which reduces the risk of odour from the process and reduces the maintenance to the plants, alongside delivering performance improvements of more than 30% when compared to conventional iron products.

It has also been used in land remediation, where it supports the treatment of soil heavily contaminated with substances like arsenic or lead, assisting the development industry in treating contaminated land and creating additional land use opportunities.

This recycling and reuse approach supports a circular economy, saves money for the taxpayer and contributes to our ambition to become a net zero organisation.

12. Strategic risks

Strategic risks	Update and mitigation	Relative rating and in-year trend
Public safety – a significant surface hazard caused by past coal mining or an incident at a Mining Remediation Authority legacy site causes serious injury or fatality.	We have established processes to manage our risks which include proactive inspection and communication programmes and a 24/7 emergency response line. We adopt a proportionate response to manage this risk but it cannot be eliminated.	High (stable)
Changing climate and extreme weather events – we are unable to adequately understand, adapt to and mitigate the effects of the changing climate and extreme weather events, impacting our assets and ability to deliver our remit.	Our significant capital build and refurbishment programmes are designed to ensure that our schemes mitigate and prevent pollution and flooding. We continue to develop our understanding of the impact of climate change adaptation and extreme weather events on our estate and operations and will use this to inform our future work and programmes.	High (stable)
Saline mine water from inland coalfields – there is a risk that without remediation action, untreated saline mine water will have a detrimental impact on the environment.	Analysis of our monitoring of England’s inland coalfields demonstrates that the chemistry of the mine water is extremely challenging and in the long term will require additional treatment to that normally undertaken. Our survey and inspection work to understand the scale and extent of this issue is on target, and we are working with partners to develop sustainable options to manage the risk.	High (stable)
Incidents – the scale or concurrency of critical/major incidents impact on the ability of the Mining Remediation Authority to achieve its strategic objectives.	We actively work to maintain our resilience and emergency response readiness and work with local resilience partnerships and regional resilience partnerships across Great Britain to ensure we can respond to emergencies and incidents that happen on the coalfield. This has enabled an effective and proactive response to a number of significant incidents during 2025 to 2026.	High (rising)
Cybersecurity failure – world political climate, growing digital dependency, increasingly sophisticated and innovative means of attack leads to a cyber security failure resulting in financial or data loss, disruption to service or damage to reputation.	The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) threat assessment continues to remain heightened due to the global risk landscape. We continue to focus on promoting a strong cyber aware culture, maintaining strong technical controls, and ensuring we have robust incident response procedures in place.	High (rising)
Global uncertainty and macroeconomic volatility – geopolitical instability, international conflict, trade disruption and wider global economic uncertainty drive sustained inflationary pressures, volatility in energy and commodity markets and disruption to supply chains, increasing the cost of delivery and impacting the Mining Remediation Authority’s ability to deliver its strategic objectives.	We consider global economic and geopolitical developments and assess their potential impacts on inflation, supply chains and affordability through our financial planning and financial management frameworks. We mitigate supply chain risk through market engagement, effective contract management and prioritisation of activity to maintain value for money and continuity of delivery for the communities we serve.	High (rising)
Government policy – policy and legislation changes in areas relevant to our work, including increasing differences in priorities across the 3 nations caused by further devolution, cause inefficiency, legal challenge, uncertainty or reputational impacts.	We continue to work closely with governments and partners in the 3 nations we serve to deliver our work in a way that supports their priorities and plans and to maximise the delivery of UK and national outcomes.	Medium (stable)
Data/information – due to lack of resource or prioritisation or the slow adoption of new technologies such as AI, we are unable to evolve our data and information to meet our own business and stakeholders’ needs, leading to an inability to deliver against our strategic objectives and create value.	We are making strong progress against our data and information plan published in 2023 to 2024, which outlines how we will work with partners to maximise the social and environmental value of our data alongside value for the taxpayer. Our data improvement programme will keep our data fit for purpose and we continue to explore opportunities to use AI to help us to manage our data and information more effectively.	Medium (stable)
Innovation – due to limited internal resources or internal and/or client processes, product or service development/delivery may take longer than planned, leading to delays in value creation and/or cost savings.	We continue to maximise opportunities to leverage our estates and by-products to deliver on the government’s priorities. We have made further progress in enabling mine water heat opportunities and we are investigating opportunities for the re-use of the mine water that we treat.	Medium (stable)
Health, safety and wellbeing – we fail to identify and properly manage health and safety risks resulting in fatality, injury, ill health or poor wellbeing to anyone affected by our activities and/or assets.	We continue to prioritise people’s health, safety and wellbeing and have robust and proactive processes and procedures in place. We have continued to build on our successful British Safety Council 5 star accreditation, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to and effective management of health, safety and wellbeing.	Low (stable)
Public and partner awareness – ineffective stakeholder engagement and communication strategy leads to stakeholders not having a clear understanding of our remit and activities, leading to lost opportunities to improve outcomes on the coalfield and for communities.	Following our name change and the publication of our new business plan, we have continued to promote a better understanding of our work and to encourage others to partner with us to maximise opportunities to improve outcomes for the communities we serve.	Low (stable)

13. Case study: our work embracing technology to create data driven insights

We hold a unique and extensive collection of data and information that documents Great Britain’s mining legacy and its impacts on people, places and the environment.

This information is critical to supporting our frontline activities to protect the environment and keep people safe, and in supporting sustainable development and economic growth.

We believe that data driven innovation has the potential to transform how we, and others, support a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

At a time of rapid technological change and accelerating adoption of AI, we have taken a considered approach, investing in data, skills and digital capability to modernise our operations, realise the value of our information assets, and deliver more efficient and resilient services.

We have been harnessing the power of AI to unlock insights from our archive of historical mine plans.

This archive contains around 120,000 plans, some dating back to the 17th century.

Despite their age, these plans remain a critical source of intelligence on underground conditions, including the extent and connectivity of coal mine workings.

Working in partnership with the Hartree Centre (which, supported by government funding and strategic industry partnerships, enables public sector organisations and UK businesses to adopt supercomputing, data science and AI technologies to drive productivity and innovation) and IBM, data scientists developed a workflow that detects and extracts mining related features from the historical mine plans.

The workflow automatically identifies and extracts mining features, along with associated text and labels, into a structured database.

Our specialist teams then validate the outputs before accepting them into our corporate databases.

This workflow allows us to gather large amounts of information far more quickly than manual methods, helping us build a more accurate picture of underground activity.

Alongside our use of AI, we have expanded our use of earth observation technologies to strengthen how we identify, assess and manage mining related hazards.

This includes increased use of drone and satellite data to map surface features and assess ground conditions.

Following concerns about the safety of spoil tips and fissuring in the hills around Abertillery in South Wales – a legacy of the region’s deep coal mining history – we used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data acquired from aerial and drone surveys to efficiently quantify and safely evaluate these potential mining-related features, helping us assess risk to local communities without putting people in harm’s way.

In addition, LiDAR data has supported investigations into how mine workings connect underground and how mine water moves through them, helping us to understand where mine water may emerge at the surface.

At our Lynemouth mine water treatment scheme in North East England, we have utilised drone surveying to understand our assets and how best to protect them over time, collaborating with the British Geological Survey to derive a bespoke erosion monitoring strategy for this unique coastal site.

Together, these initiatives demonstrate how we are using technology and AI in a targeted, responsible way, combining innovation with expert oversight to maximise the value of our data, strengthen risk management, and better protect people, communities and the environment.

14. Sustainability and the environment

We’ve made further progress against the priorities in our 2023 to 2026 sustainability plan, have improved our baselining and evidence collection and are ready to begin reporting against the new UK government GGC in 2026 to 2027.

We have taken practical action to grow our solar estate and maximise its efficiency to support decarbonisation and deliver value for the taxpayer.

We continue to learn from others and to be honest about challenges we face in making the progress we aim for and to adapt to the impacts of the changing climate that increasingly influences our work.

During the year, we started the installation of 2,400 new solar panels at 2 mine water treatment scheme sites in the North-East and West Midlands with a combined generating capacity of 1.2 megawatt-peak (MWp).

We’ve also replaced damaged or stolen panels across our existing solar estate restoring 153kw of generating capacity, enough electricity to power 36 average UK homes for 1 year.

We’ve begun installing battery storage at sites to maximise our use of the solar energy we generate and have developed a new, best practice, maintenance approach which will help ensure our sites can operate at maximum efficiency.

This work will reduce our carbon emissions and delivers value for the taxpayer by reducing our energy costs in the long term.

During 2025 to 2026, our emissions and energy generation was broadly consistent with 2024 to 2025.

Our total emissions reduced slightly due to seasonal fluctuations in rainfall and wider grid decarbonisation.

During the year, we’ve seen the impacts of both prolonged wet weather and prolonged dry weather.

We are increasingly seeing the effects of a changing climate in our work and taking steps to adapt to this.

This includes close work with Welsh Government to consider medium and long-term impacts for tip management.

We want to ensure that our climate change adaptation plan reflects these operational realities and we have challenged ourselves as to how we can use our data and new technologies to better inform risk assessment and response.

Our 3 year climate change adaptation plan will reflect this thinking and will now be published in 2026 to 2027.

We’ve made good progress against our nature recovery goals.

We’ve fully baselined the habitat types and conditions across all 65 of our mine water treatment schemes that include habitats, and developed a detailed habitat management plan for each site.

We carried out habitat surveys at 7 more of our coal tips, and produced management plans for 2 of these.

This work will enable us to protect, conserve and regenerate the diverse and often unique mining legacy habitats and species that our estate supports.

Additionally, we worked in partnership with the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK to deliver habitat improvements for adders, a protected species, at our Cannock Wood tip site.

This was supported by funding from the Cannock Chase National Landscape team.

Delivering social and environmental value alongside value for the taxpayer is a key part of our approach.

In 2025 to 2026, we worked closely with our supply chain during the construction of 2 new mine water treatment schemes to generate meaningful community benefits.

This included delivering targeted careers advice and support to local schools, hosting university visits, and providing educational outreach to more than 1,000 individuals.

In addition, 3 apprenticeship opportunities were created.

During construction of these 2 sites, contracts worth more than £2.2 million were awarded to local suppliers, with more than 60% of spend at one site directed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

We collaborated with suppliers to deliver a range of corporate volunteering opportunities, which included Mining Remediation Authority colleagues participating in a community reed planting event at one of our sites.

Our supply chain partners are committed to ongoing engagement with local communities, offering initiatives such as school volunteering days, community planting activities, and participation in school and careers fairs and specialist construction events.

We continue to enhance our data collection, analysis and reporting to improve understanding and accountability across our sustainability and environment work.

We expanded our raw materials tracking tool to all construction sites to develop a waste baseline and identify opportunities for better management of the materials we use.

We missed our ochre recycling target this year due to changes to the reedbed maintenance programme which reduced the total ochre wastes generated and made the more complex ochre wastes (that currently go to landfill) a higher percentage of the reduced volume.

We’ve learnt from this and have also prioritised work to find innovative new options for our most challenging and complex ochre wastes in future.

We launched our new 2026 to 2029 sustainability plan, co-created with more than 120 colleagues, and trialled a new sustainability impact assessment tool to support colleagues in enhancing sustainability across all aspects of our work.

We further developed our environmental management system to manage environmental risks more effectively and strengthen environmental compliance.

All of this will help us in reporting on our sustainability work and has allowed us to be ready to report under the 2026 to 2030 UK government GGC from next year.

14.1 During 2025 to 2026, key successes include:

• restoring full capacity to our existing solar sites by replacing damaged and stolen solar panels across our estate, and beginning the installation of new solar panels at 2 mine water treatment schemes
• starting to install battery storage to support solar at 2 sites and undertaking feasibility studies to expand the rollout further in future years
• baselining habitat and developing improvement plans at all of our 65 mine water treatment schemes that contain habitats
• undertaking habitat surveys at 7 tips and delivering a habitat improvement project with partners at a key site
• further consideration of the impact of a changing climate on our work and the need for further adaptation across our work and with partners
• getting ready for the new UK government GGC
• publishing our new 2026 to 2029 sustainability plan

14.2 Our sustainability reporting through GGC

We report our progress through the Greening Government Commitments, which are part of the new sustainability framework.

The data for our 2025 to 2026 year will form the baseline for the new GCC targets, which are yet to be finalised and published.

In readiness for increased reporting requirements, we have extended our sources and methods of data collection to reflect the full breadth of our work, including construction, borehole and operational maintenance work across the organisation which has not previously been reported.

For comparison, we have shown our 2025 to 2026 data in 2 columns; one showing the figures using the original data methodology and another using the new enhanced data sources which will form our baseline for future reporting.

We will revise our reporting next year to show progress against our 2025 to 2026 baseline.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Power generated through our direct use of fossil fuels (kWh)	1,575,484	1,413,944	1,141,616	4,151,179
Total Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions from the direct use of fossil fuels (tCO2e)	408.48	360.96	291.45	1,141.29
GHG emissions head office from the direct use of fossil fuels (tCO2e)	8.78	8.78	8.53	13.7

This section relates to diesel fuel and hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) used in generators at operational and construction sites, as well as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) purchased for our Mansfield office for heating.

There has been an increase in fossil fuel usage reporting and associated emissions.

This was impacted by frontline works and incident response including generator power for our Dalkeith construction site and additional generator power requirements at the Wheal Jane mine water treatment scheme to treat more mine water during the winter storms.

Work has continued to replace generators with grid connections at some of our operational sites.

Agreements are now in place for the work, and we expect to see the benefit in the next financial year.

Our 2025 to 2026 improved data sources figures include emissions from construction, borehole and refurbishment works which have not previously been reported.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Purchased electricity (kWh)	27,817,604	27,817,604	28,056,826	20,494,016
Total GHG emissions from purchased electricity (tCO2e)	5,439.18	5,439.18	6,322.61	7,878.51
GHG emissions head office from purchased electricity (tCO2e)	202.88	202.88	217.91	364.94

This section covers both our operational sites and our head office.

We continue to experience changes in the pattern of drier and wetter weather due to the changing climate.

A significant drop in usage from last year for the first half of the year was noted due to drier conditions than previously experienced.

However, wetter conditions in Q4 saw the power use increase from the previous year, however the overall position was a small decrease in mains electricity usage.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Renewables generated (kWh)	1,031,120	1,031,120	935,694	189,966
Renewables used (kWh)	670,626	670,626	639,940	165,501
Renewables exported to the grid (kWh)	360,494	360,494	295,754	24,465

We have increased generation from our solar installations from previous years.

This is due to the replacement of faulty assets and on-going maintenance.

We expect further increases in generation with the expansion of our solar programme.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Carbon intensity (kgCO2e/kWh)	0.19	0.19	0.22	0.36

Carbon intensity has decreased, helped by grid decarbonisation, and aided by increased solar performance due to maintenance.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Total head office power related GHG emissions (tCO2e)	211.66	211.66	226.44	378.64

Although we have had an increase in electricity use due to an increase in office usage, we have been able to report a reduction in carbon emissions due to wider decarbonisation of grid supplied electricity.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Total power related GHG emissions (tCO2e)	6,206.5	5,800.13	6,624.06	9,019.8

Our emissions have decreased as a result of grid decarbonisation, and increased solar performance.

Using the original data sources this represents a reduction of 12.4% from last year and a 35.7% reduction from our 2017 to 2018 baseline.

We have enhanced our monitoring and reporting in this area, and the improved data sources figures shown include power from our construction, borehole and refurbishment activity.

Using this data we have demonstrated a 6.3% reduction since last year and a 31.2% reduction from our 2017 to 2018 baseline.

Power	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Total expenditure on energy use	£7,128,611	£7,128,611	£8,546,812	£4,348,855

Our expenditure relates to energy use at our Mansfield office, mine water treatment schemes and subsidence pumping stations.

The amount of expenditure incurred from subsidence pumping stations is significantly lower than previous years.

Fugitive emissions	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Refrigeration and Aircon (tCO2e)	6	6	9	6

The system operated effectively following the leak detected and repaired in 2024 to 2025.

Business related travel	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
km travelled	1,514,995	1,514,995	1,435,054	1,799,174
Number of flights	2	2	4	73
GHG emissions (tCO2e)	316.34	193.96	184.69	305.9
Intensity (tCO2e/100,000km)	20.88	12.8	12.87	17
Total expenditure on travel (domestic and international)	£683,026	£683,026	£536,652	£354,537

A return flight was taken by one colleague to attend an overseas conference.

Due to enhancements in our data collection methodology, we have now included more granular levels of data from our operations and maintenance contractor with reporting in place for the types of vehicles driven.

The inclusion of this data has resulted in a rise in our travel intensity figures.

Business related travel	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
% fleet vehicles that are ultra low emission or zero emission vehicles (hybrid or full electric)	100%	100%	97%	0%

We have taken further action to decarbonise our fleet. All fleet and pool vehicles are either low emission hybrids or fully electric.

Resources – water use	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Water use (m3) – Mansfield Office	1,148	1,148	1,069	1,910
Mine water sites	6,193	6,193	7,046	3,075 (estimated from average usage)
Total expenditure on water	£9,822	£9,822	£77,351	£65,259

We have used more water at our Mansfield Office as more people are routinely using the office.

Water is also used in the chemical process on some of our mine water treatment schemes.

We received a rebate of £35,000 during the year against previous years’ expenditure, which was used to offset our bills this year.

Resources – paper use	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Paper use (reams A4 equivalent)	225	225	470	718

Despite the increase in headcount, we have seen a reduction in paper usage compared to the previous year.

We will continue to monitor paper use.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Total waste (tonnes)	27,846 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, including Wheal Jane (24,138 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, excluding Wheal Jane)	16,663 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, including Wheal Jane (12,955 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, excluding Wheal Jane)	30,871 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, including Wheal Jane (26,375 – mine water treatment scheme wastes, excluding Wheal Jane)	1,417 – includes waste from active mine water treatment schemes (Dawdon and Ynysarwed) but excludes other mine water treatment and Wheal Jane wastes
Mansfield office waste recycled (tonnes)	5.18	5.18	5.54	12
Waste recycled (tonnes)	12,371.42	11,793.77	28,651.12	12
Mansfield food waste (composted/anaerobic digestion) (tonnes)	0.005	0.005	0.076	Not recorded
Wheal Jane waste (tonnes)	3,707.7	3,707.7	3,483.42	Not recorded
Mansfield office waste to landfill (tonnes)	0	0	0.06	6.9
Waste to landfill (tonnes)	2,585.15	1,148.02	730.38	1,405
Mansfield Office waste incinerated (energy from waste) (tonnes)	6.17	6.17	6.44	0
Mansfield office hazardous waste (tonnes)	0	0	0	0
Waste incinerated (without energy recovery) (tonnes)	1.43	0	0	0

Since 2022 to 2023, we have included waste from the Wheal Jane metal mine we manage for Defra into our annual reporting figures.

We show the numbers without Wheal Jane in brackets for closer comparison with the 2017 to 2018 baseline.

Waste recycled is inclusive of Mansfield office waste.

The volume of recycled operational material has reduced this year due to us undertaking less reedbed refurbishment activity.

Our improved data sources in 2025 to 2026 include waste data from our construction, borehole and maintenance work across the organisation which has not previously been reported, including incinerated waste.

During the coming year we will be further developing our data collection process to improve our waste data, enabling a complete view of all waste arising from organisation activities.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
ICT waste (tonnes)	0.23	0.23	0.43	0

We reuse, repurpose or recycle our ICT equipment.

In 2025 to 2026 we recycled 0.233t of ICT waste that could not be donated or repurposed.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
% head office waste to landfill	0%	0%	0.48%	36.51%

We continue to reduce our office waste to landfill.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
% waste to landfill (excludes Wheal Jane, which is stored in a mining waste facility and stored ochre for reuse)	9.28%	6.89%	2.2%	99.2%

We have sent more of our mine water treatment scheme waste to landfill this year.

As part of improving our waste reporting we have implemented a waste tracking system, which is enabling waste streams from our construction and public safety and subsidence work to be measured and reported.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
Total expenditure on waste disposal	£8,810	£8,810	£8,147	£3,176

This relates to the cost of waste disposal from our Mansfield office.

Waste	2025 to 2026 (baseline data using increased and more granular data sources)	2025 to 2026 (figures from comparable data sources to allow comparison with our previous reporting years)	2024 to 2025	2017 to 2018 (our original baseline year for the 2021 to 2025 reporting period)
No. Items Consumer Single-Use Plastics (CSUPs)	4,052	4,052	1,641	Not recorded

We have seen an increase in items purchased.

The items listed are plastic pens, disposable cleaning wipes and drinks bottles, partially due to an increase in people using the office.

We will continue to monitor the use of single-use plastics at our Mansfield office and work to reduce the number of plastic items purchased.

This performance report has been approved by the chief executive and accounting officer Paul Frammingham, 9 July 2026.