The psychological burden of having to acknowledge guilt for such a catastrophe would be unbearable though. It's hardly surprising no-one would admit fault, and probably not even to themselves.
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On hearing news of the disaster, Lord Robens of Woldingham, PC, the chairman of the National Coal Board (NCB), did not go immediately to Aberfan, preferring to proceed with his installation as Chancellor of the University of Surrey. However, NCB sources wrongly told the Secretary of State for Wales that Lord Robens was personally directing relief work. When he eventually reached Aberfan, Lord Robens attributed the disaster to ‘natural unknown springs’ beneath the tip. This was known by all the local people to be incorrect. The NCB had been tipping on top of springs that are shown on maps of the neighbourhood and in which village schoolboys had played. The Wilson government immediately appointed a Tribunal of Inquiry which reported in August 1967 (Davies 1967). It was unsparing.
Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board….The legal liability of the National Coal Board to pay compensation for the personal injuries (fatal or otherwise) and damage to property is incontestable and uncontested."
....."The Tribunal was appalled by the behaviour of the National Coal Board and some of its employees, both before and after the disaster: ‘[T]he Aberfan disaster is a terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude by many men charged with tasks for which they were totally unfitted, of failure to heed clear warnings, and of total lack of direction from above’. Colliery engineers at all levels concentrated only on conditions underground. In one of its most memorable phrases, the Report described them as ‘like moles being asked about the habits of birds’. The Tribunal endorsed the comment of Desmond Ackner QC (now Lord Ackner), counsel for the Aberfan Parents’ and Residents’ Association, that Coal Board witnesses had tried to give the impression that ‘the Board had no more blameworthy connection with this disaster than, say, the Gas Board’. It devoted a section of its report to ‘the attitude of the National Coal Board’ and of Lord Robens. It forthrightly condemned both. One of the kinder things it says about Lord Robens is: For the National Coal Board … thus to invite the Tribunal to ignore the evidence given by its Chairman was … both remarkable and, in the circumstances, understandable. Nevertheless, the invitation is one which we think it right to accept"
Lord Robens offered to resign, however he actually had no intention of resigning,knowing his resignation letter would not have been accepted. To add insult to injury,in August 1968, the Government forced the Trustees of the Aberfan Disaster Fund to pay a contribution to the cost of removing the remaining NCB tips from above Aberfan. These tips were in a place and condition in which, according to the NCB’s own technical literature, they should never have been. In August 1968, the trustees agreed to contribute £150,000 towards removing them. This decision was bitterly controversial. The Robens Committee led to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which has regulated that subject in the UK ever since. The regulator is now the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a
Non-
Departmental
Public
Body. Compensation paid for each dead child was set at £500, which the NCB called ‘a generous offer’. It was little more than the amount paid out per farm animal. The Pearson Commission (1978) recommended no change in this state of affairs. Lord Robens gave evidence to the Pearson Commission; the Aberfan Parents’ and Residents’ Association did not.
