HC Deb 20 February 1956 vol 549 c2W
Mr. D. Price

asked the Minister of Fuel and Power his latest estimate of the total reserves of coking coal in the United Kingdom; and what proportion of this coal is reckoned to be winnable.

Mr. Aubrey Jones

The latest available information is that published by the National Coal Board in 1950 in "Plan for Coal" and by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1946 in "Fuel Research Survey Paper No. 58." According to this, roughly half the country's coal has caking qualities and volatile contents making it suitable for carbonisation, but some of this coal has a high ash or sulphur content and the best quality coking coal is of very limited extent.