Coal Stocks

HC Deb 04 November 1974 vol 880 cc39-40W

32. Mr. Speed

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will give the latest distributed and undistributed stocks of coal and the comparable figures for the last five years.

Mr. Eadie

On 19th October 1974 the NCB held 6.2 million tons in stock and total recorded distributed stocks were 15.3 million tons. Comparable figures for the previous five years are as follows:

COAL STOCKS
(million tons)
	Undistributed*	Distributed†
25th October 1969	20.3	15.2
24th October 1970	8.7	14.9
23rd October 1971	10.7	20.3
21st October 1972	10.0	19.0
20th October 1973	13.3	22.0
* Undistributed stocks are those held by the National Coal Board.
† Distributed stocks are those held by consumers—mainly power stations and coke ovens— but do not include those held by coal merchants and industrial users. Collection of statistics from these latter categories ceased in 1973.