§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Energy in how many, and what percentage of, cases the various electricity and gas authorities, respectively, waived security deposits which they were entitled by law to levy; and on what grounds.
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EXPORTS OF COAL FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM 1964, 1970 AND 1975 1964 1970 1975 Country Quantity '000 tonnes Value £'000 Quantity '000 tonnes Value £'000 Quantity '000 tonnes Value £'000 Algeria … 13 55 31 149 — — Belgium/Luxembourg … 630 3,169 112 912 420 6,742 Canada … 5 41 — — 3 79 Canary Isles … 3 20 — — — 1 Denmark … 675 2,373 25 187 5 141 Dominica … — — 4 22 — — Faroe Isles … 3 13 — 4 — — Federal Republic of Germany … 642 2,008 1,411 5,334 392 6,318 Finland … 3 16 72 642 2 46 France … 980 5,552 549 2,583 735 9,818 German Democratic Republic … — — 11 85 — — Gibraltar … 1 9 — — — — Greece … 4 50 7 56 — 2 Greenland … 10 47 7 51 — — Irish Republic … 523 2,525 150 1,260 179 3,568 Italy … 69 356 279 1,167 18 303 Madeira … 5 28 — — — — Malta … 3 23 — — — — Netherlands … 1,521 7,212 380 2,949 222 4,266 Nigeria … 3 16 3 20 — — Norway … 144 742 137 950 120 2,909 Portugal … 85 370 48 273 8 201 Romania … 46 208 10 120 — — Spain … 340 1,195 — — — — Sweden … 250 1,105 62 486 53 1,030 Switzerland … 1 13 — — — — Tunisia … 4 15 16 81 22 454 Venezuela … — — 17 184 — — TOTAL … 5,963 27,161 3,331 17,515 2,179 35,878 TOTAL OTHER COUNTRIES … 2 14 32 29 3 184 GRAND TOTAL … 5,965 27,175 3,363 17,544 2,182 36,062 — = less than 1,000 tonnes or £1,000.
§ Mr. EadieThe industries waive this right for the great majority of their consumers but information on this is not available in the form requested. I understand that at 31st December 1977 the number of deposits held by the electricity supply industry in England and Wales was 122,000 or about 0.7 per cent. of their domestic consumers. At 31st October 1977 similar figures for the British Gas Corporation were 17,595 deposits, representing 0.13 per cent. of domestic consumers.