§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Energy what has been the level of opencast coal production for the years 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.
§ Mr. John MooreInformation on opencast coal production is published monthly in the Department'sEnergy Trends, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. For convenience, the information requested, including the latest available information for 1980, is given below:
Opencast coal production, United Kingdom
thousand tonnes 1976 11,944 1977 13,551 1978 14,167 1979 12,862 1980 January—April 4,561 For comparison purposes, production in January—April 1979 was 3,971thousand tonnes.