Coal Mining (Hansard, 14 December 1992)

§ 4. Mrs. Gorman
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the future of coal mining in Wales.

§ Mr. David Hunt
The outcome of the Government's review of the coal industry will be set out in a White Paper to be published in the new year.

§ Mrs. Gorman
I am sure that my right hon. Friend will be pleased to know that recently I was fortunate enough to visit north Wales, where I met a number of people who lived in the vicinity of the Point of Ayr coal pit, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson). They strongly made the case for their pit to be taken over by a consortium of local miners and other local people. They feel that it could well be one of the most productive pits in the area.
As my right hon. Friend will know, a large number of north Wales pits are privately owned and run, and I believe that 90 pits in the Principality overall fall into that class. The local people feel strongly that they could make a very good go of keeping their pit open, if only they were given the opportunity. Will my right hon. Friend consider putting that point to our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry?

§ Mr. Hunt
My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the role of the private sector in Welsh coal mining. We have more than 90 licensed mines—two thirds of the United Kingdom total—which employ about 1,300 people in Wales. I agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of the private deep-mined sector.
I regard the Point of Ayr pit as an extremely good one; I have visited it and have been underground. The future is, of course, a matter for British Coal, as it has always been, but I very much hope that British Coal will consider any reasonble offer from the private sector.

§ Mr. Hanson
Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the miners of the Point of Ayr colliery, whom I visited last Friday and who last week—yet again—broke all production target records, proving how profitable and viable the pit can be? Will the right hon. Gentleman take it from me—not from the hon. Member for Billericay (Mrs. Gorman), who represents a seat in Essex—that the one thing that the miners, their families and their north Wales community do not want is privatisation? They wish to remain part of British Coal, productively and viably, and to make a success of their livelihoods and their future.

§ Mr. Hunt
The hon. Gentleman should be careful about trying to introduce party political division to this subject. A number of hon. Members on both sides of the House would like Welsh coal mining to develop, in the private sector.
I join the hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to the Point of Ayr work force. Hon. Members who are familiar with the coal mining industry will know how difficult it is to move from the longwall mining technique to continuous mining, but the Point of Ayr miners have achieved that with remarkable success. I hope, therefore, that the hon. Gentleman will accept the suggestions made by my hon. Friend the Member for Billericay (Mrs. Gorman) for securing the pit's future. All those aspects should be considered—but, as I said at the outset, the question of individual pits must be a matter for British Coal.

§ Mr. Nigel Evans
As my right hon. Friend and you, Madam Speaker, will know, I was born in Wales, and I know all about the past—if not, perhaps, the future—of the coal mining industry in that country. Will my right 9 hon. Friend remind the House how many pits were closed during the 1960s and 1970s under Labour Administrations?

§ Mr. Hunt
My hon. Friend is right: 331 pits were closed under Labour Governments. That is an enormous total. Of course, pits have closed under all Governments; the difficulty that now faces British Coal is that it produces more coal than it can sell. All those points will be carefully considered in the energy review that is being supervised by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade.

§ Mr. Denzil Davies
The Secretary of State has made what strikes some of us as a disturbing statement. He said that, if British Coal were not prepared to transfer its licences to another operator, that was a decision entirely for British Coal. Will the right hon. Gentleman and the President of the Board of Trade make it clear that, if British Coal refuses to hold tenders, the licences will be taken away from it and will be issued by the Government in the future?

§ Mr. Hunt
I am grateful for the opportunity to clarify exactly what I said. I said—as all coal Ministers have said from the Dispatch Box—that decisions on individual pits must be a matter for British Coal. Returning to the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Billericay about whether there should be a viable private sector place for the Point of Ayr colliery—or, indeed, for Betws—I very much hope that British Coal will give careful consideration to any such proposal. If I become aware of circumstances in which British Coal is not prepared to give proper scrutiny to a private sector bid, I trust that the right hon. Member for Llanelli (Mr. Davies)—and others on both sides of the House—will make me aware of them.