§ Mr. Ashtonasked the Minister of Power (1) if he is aware of the research being carried out by the British Coal Utilisation Research Association; and if he will take this into account when reaching decisions on applications by the Central Electricity Generating Board for the construction of power stations;
(2) if he will make a statement on the discovery by scientists of the British Coal Utilisation Research Association of a new method of electricity production capable of cutting costs by ½d. per kilowatt.
§ Mr. MasonYes; I recently visited the B.C.U.R.A. establishment and saw for myself the wide variety of its work, especially the developments in fluidised bed coal combustion, with which my Advisory Coucil on Research and Development has kept in close touch. The Association considers the results obtained so far as very promising: further technical and economic assessments on the larger scale application of the technique are being pressed ahead. I await the results with great interest.