§ Lord Hinton of Banksideasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish their response to the Commission on Energy and the Environment's Report Coal and the Environment.
§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (The Lord Bellwin)My right honourable friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment, for Energy, for Scotland and for Wales, have published our response to the CENE Coal Study today as a White Paper (Coal and the Environment; Cmnd. 8877). Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.
We are grateful to the commission for their thorough analysis of the environmental effects of coal mining and use.
We agree that a modern efficient coal industry, operated to high environmental standards, can make a major contribution to meeting the country's energy needs without imposing unacceptable invironmental costs.
We accept that spoil disposal, opencast extraction, and subsidence damage pose the main environmental challenge. But we agree with the commission the problems are not insuperable. Positive steps are being taken by the Government, the NCB, and local authorities to tackle them.
On spoil disposal, we have initiated a major exercise in the main Yorkshire Coalfield. This will evaluate the options, and establish a new framework within which decisions on spoil disposal can be taken.
We intend to bring NCB opencast mining into the normal minerals planning system. This will enable local authorities to achieve a closer integration of land use planning and mining.
We announce improved publicity by the NCB on possible subsidence, and publication of more comprehensive information about people's rights. An addition to the Code of Practice has been agreed by the board which provides for compensation to be paid for loss of property value due to structural distortion. And we have already announced the setting up of an independent review of the working of the subsidence repair and compensation system.
We also confirm our commitment to improved environmental standards in older coalfield areas, and our intention to renew the momentum for clearance and restoration there.
On these and other issues we support the determination of the coal industry to achieve steady progress towards competitiveness and viability, and the improved environmental standards that are now expected of all major industries.
Our response sets out in full our reaction to each of the commission's recommendations.