10 and 11. Mr. B. Taylorasked the Minister of Power (1) if he will state the amount of the liability transferred to the National Coal Board from the Coal Commission set up under the Coal Act, 1938, when coal deposits became public property;
(2) if he will state the rate of interest paid by the National Coal Board to the Minister of Power on the liability transferred from the Coal Commission set up under the Coal Act, 1938.
§ Mr. WoodThe amount of the liability was £78,457,089. The yearly rate of interest paid is 2½ per cent.
§ Mr. WoodI would not like to answer that off the cuff. I think the hon. 934 Gentleman has put down a Written Question to which he will be receiving an Answer.
Mr. TaylorIt was not a Written Question when I put it down, but because of the change in procedure since last Monday it has become a Written Question.
Mr. GriffithsDoes the Minister realise that a figure of £78 million is not the actual figure? The burden on the National Coal Board is greater than that. The National Coal Board has since then had to accept extra liabilities which should have been placed on the former owners, so that the total burden is not £78 million but £78 million plus the extra burden.
§ Mr. WoodI take the right hon. Gentleman's point, but in fact this was an ordinary liability placed on any business which operates with borrowed capital. I do not think there can be any question about the rectitude of this figure or the moderate rate of interest at which it has to be repaid.
Mr. TaylorThe cost of buying out the royalty owners was just over £66 million. How does it come about that the transference of the liability on vesting date was £78 million? Why the difference between £66 million and £78 million, without admitting the morality of what was done in 1938?
§ Mr. WoodAs the hon. Gentleman knows, the extent of the liability was fixed in 1946, under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act, for which the hon. Gentleman and his friends were responsible.