§ Mr. Grenfellasked the Minister of Fuel and Power (1) whether he will give the figures of coal production for the 12 months ending 31st December, 1944, with separate figures for underground mines and opencast workings, respectively;
(2) whether he will give the number of sites being worked far opencast coal getting for 1942, 1943 and 1944, respectively, with the number of persons employed and the annual output for each year, respectively.
Major Lloyd GeorgeI am informed by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Works that operations were carried out at 56 opencast coal sites in 1942, 96 in 1943 and 154 in 1944. The number of persons employed, excluding those engaged on screening and transporting the coal, were respectively 2,050, 5,801, 9,278. These figures relate to the end of the year in each case. The production of opencast coal in 1942 amounted to 1,308,200 tons and in 1943 to 4,426,700 tons. Details of392W the production of mined and opencast coal in 1944 will shortly be published in the Board of Trade Journal.