Families of striking miners to also be pardoned

Until now, the bill had only covered miners themselves.

The government has confirmed, however, that it was “proposing to extend the pardon to miners and members of their households who meet the qualifying criteria”.

But there will be no compensation for sacked workers, which the Scottish government said was the responsibility of the UK government.

Roughly 14,000 miners went on strike and by the mid-1980s some 1,400 had been arrested, with more than 500 convicted.

Nicky Wilson, from the National Union of Miners (NUM) told Holyrood’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee earlier this year that not everything that occurred during the strike was organised officially.

He told MSPs that there were often “spontaneous demonstrations”.

“It was because people found out that a guy who had been on strike was no longer on strike.

“Therefore, a group within that community – be it wives, daughters or other family members – had a spontaneous reaction to that and demonstrated at the house. Some of them got arrested.”

Former Labour leader Richard Leonard aims to amend the legislation to establish “a scheme or schemes for providing financial redress to a miner, or the legal representatives of any deceased miner covered by the pardon”.

The Scottish government said, however, that the bill wasn’t the right mechanism for compensation. It said it would “continue to press the UK government for a UK-wide public inquiry which should also include the payment of compensation.”