§ 12. Mr. Edwin Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Energy how many tons of anthracite, coking and other kinds of coal, respectively, have been imported into the United Kingdom over each of the past three years; and what is the value in each instance.
§ Mr. WainwrightWill my right hon. Friend say how long these contracts have been in operation? Is it not incredible that, although we have coal stocks of 30 million tons, at the same time we allow imports of coal? What about the promise we made to the miners that we would use all the coal they produced? What about foreign markets? Are we not doing anything on that score? Is not the situation ludicrous—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The Minister already has more than enough to answer in the hon. Member's first four supplementary questions.
§ Mr. WainwrightPlease may I continue, Mr. Speaker, because I am coming to the important part of my supplementary question?
§ Mr. SpeakerMay I urge hon. Members that if they have an important part of a supplementary question they should put it first.
§ Mr. WainwrightIs it not ludicrous to encourage the coal miners to produce more coal when we do not use it but, instead, rely on coal imports?
| Anthracite | Steam Coal | Coking Coal | ||||||
| Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | |||
| (million tons) | (£ million) | (million tons) | (£ million) | (million tons) | (£ million) | |||
| 1973 | … | … | 0.13 | 2.60 | 0.37 | 3.87 | 1.15 | 14.8 |
| 1974 | … | … | 0.07 | 2.06 | 2.56 | 38.10 | 0.86 | 22.02 |
| 1975 | … | … | 0.13 | 4.96 | 4.09 | 76.07 | 0.78 | 24.49 |