Unions condemned the “cynical” launching of an industry-controlled compensation scheme for blacklisted construction workers yesterday ahead of an imminent High Court hearing.

In 2009 the Information Commissioner’s Office raided the offices of the Consulting Association, seizing a database of 3,213 names which 44 firms had been using to keep trade unionists and green activists off their sites.

It took four years of campaigning before just eight of those companies — Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC — announced the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme (TCWCS) last October, to compensate the victims they blacklisted.