§ 1. Miss Burtonasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he is aware of public disquiet in Coventry at the shortage of coal; and what steps he is taking to deal with the situation.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Fuel and Power (Mr. L. W. Joynson-Hicks)I am making inquiries and will write to the hon. Lady as soon as possible.
§ Miss BurtonWill the Minister try to find out whether this long delay in coal deliveries in Coventry is due to the shortage of staff in coal merchants' offices, or whether it is due to maldistribution?
§ Mr. Joynson-HicksI have no doubt that the shortage of staff in the coal merchant' offices has something to do with it, but I think that in addition there' are special circumstances in the hon. Lady's constituency, which draws most of its coal from the Warwickshire coalfield, and production in that coalfield has been particularly bad this year.
§ Mr. T. Brownis the Minister satisfied with the distributive side of coal supplies? My experience is that the hold-up is on the distributive side and that it is this which is causing great anxiety. Would 798 the Minister care to inquire into the distributive sector of the industry? I know it is in private hands, but nevertheless it ought to be able to supply coal to people when they need it, in view of the output.
§ Mr. Joynson-HicksThe hon. Gentleman is quite right in saying that a lot of difficulty has Iain during the cold weather on the distributive side, as the merchants have had great difficulty in meeting the demands. One of the causes is that, owing to full employment, there is no casual labour available at the employment exchanges to supplement the efforts of the coal porters.
§ Mr. NabarroIs not the answer to this question to import the small additional quantity of coal that is wanted, namely, 2 million tons, in order to end this wretched system of house coal rationing.
§ Mr. Joynson-HicksI think we have some Questions dealing with coal imports later on the Order Paper.