National Coal Board (Hansard, 19 March 1979)

§ Mr. Tim Smith
asked the Secretary of State for Energy when he expects to meet the chairman of the National Coal Board.

§ 9. Mr. Canavan
asked the Secretary of State for Energy when he expects to meet the chairman of the National Coal Board.

§ 16. Mr. Hannam
asked the Secretary of State for Energy when he intends to meet the chairman of the National Coal Board.

§ Mr. Benn
I meet the chairman of the National Coal Board frequently.

§ Mr. Smith
When the Secretary of State next meets the chairman of the National Coal Board, will he commend him, and through him the NUM executive, on the pay deal that has been reached? Will he tell the chairman that he would have preferred differentials to have been maintained, but that nevertheless, he hopes the miners will vote for the deal in next week's ballot?

§ Mr. Benn
No, I shall do none of those things, for the simple reason that the negotiations that have taken place between the Coal Board and the NUM have followed a joint examination of the prospects for the industry under the planning agreement signed with the NCB. Parliamentary comments about the way in which an agreed overall settlement is divided between different groups are not appropriate or helpful. It is better to leave it to the bargaining that takes place within the industry.

§ Mr. Canavan
In view of recent confirmation of an estimated 300 million to 400 million tons of coal reserves in the Hirst seam of the Stirlingshire-Clackmannan coal basin, will my right hon. Friend arrange joint discussions between the National Coal Board and the Electricity Board with a view to using these reserves for a refurbished coal-fired power station at Kincardine, which would mean a reliable supply of energy as well as improved employment prospects for 1075 workers in the electricity and coal industries, such as the miners at Polmaise colliery?

§ Mr. Benn
My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State was there when the new pit was begun on Friday, and there is a programme of exploratory drilling. I gather that 10 boreholes have been drilled and another four are to be drilled. It is difficult at present to know exactly what reserves will be revealed. This whole issue is the subject of discussion between the Coal Board and the South of Scotland Electricity Board, for which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland is responsible.

§ Mr. Hannam
In his discussions with the chairman, has the Secretary of State been given any forecasts of the time when the coal industry is likely to return to profitability, in view of the rising price of energy? If such a forecast has been discussed, will the Secretary of State indicate it to the House?

§ Mr. Benn
There have been detailed discussions, but events like those in Iran will knock all our forecasts awry. It is not possible to give a specific forecast to which one can adhere on such matters. I hope the House will remember that in the current year the degree of Government support to the mining industry has been £174 million, compared with almost £3 billion given by the German taxpayers in support of their mining industry. We have the cheapest coal production in the EEC. We are overwhelmingly the large contributor. It is a source of strength to the EEC that that coal is available and that we have a massive investment and development programme in coal.

§ Mr. Skinner
Will the Secretary of State discuss with the chairman of the NCB the question of the Common Market in much more detail, especially now that even Ministers are revealing the real truth about this lousy market? Will my right hon. Friend ask Sir Derek Ezra why, since the referendum—

§ Mr. Gordon Wilson
Which one?

§ Mr. Skinner
The 1975 referendum—that is the one that really matters, not that tin-pot thing we had the other day. Will my right hon. Friend tell Sir Derek Ezra that we now sell less coal to the Common Market than we were selling at 1076 the time of the referendum despite the fact that Sir Derek and others like him jump on the gravy train to the EEC every now and again? Will my right hon. Friend tell him to do something about it, especially now that we have 35 million tons of coal at the pit top?

§ Mr. Benn
The coal stocks at the end of the winter are just over 29 million tons. We are debating this matter in the House tomorrow. I share my hon. Friend's concern that, despite all that has been said at energy councils in the EEC about greater self-sufficiency in Europe, there has been no support whatever for the EEC's major coal producer to have its coal burnt in the power stations of the Community. This is despite the enormous subsidies given by other member States to their own coal industries.

§ Sir Anthony Meyer
Will the right hon. Gentleman encourage the chairman of the NCB to be more forthcoming in providing figures to enable intelligent comparisons to be made between the long and short-term costs of opencast versus deep mined coal? Will he also give us the figures of reserves and marginal costs?

§ Mr. Benn
I shall look at that and see whether the figures are available. If so, I shall consider making them available to the House. However, there is a far greater degree of disclosure by the Coal Board about its own costs than by the private oil companies with which we have to deal, and therefore the House is far better informed about the position.

§ Mr. Tom King
Are not the figures that the Secretary of State frequently quotes on European support for the coal industry the clearest evidence of the strength of our case for the coalburn contribution to European markets? Is it not a measure of his failure in negotiation that we still have absolutely nothing to show for that? In fact he admitted the failure in an interview in the Financial Times.

§ Mr. Benn
These are EEC figures. Only a few months ago the hon. Member was asking me to concede on refinery policy in order to get support for the coal policy. In the event, all that we said about refinery policy has been proved up to the hilt to be absolutely 1077 correct. Perhaps the hon. Member will look in Hansard and see whether my memory is correct, and that at earlier Question Times all the Opposition Front Bench did was to suggest that we capitulate, either to the oil companies or the Common Market Commission.