§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing details of the aid received by the Scottish coal industry from the European Coal and Steel Community in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. EadieAid from the European Coal and Steel Community is provided for the National Coal Board as a whole and cannot be broken down between individual coalfields. However, aid has been received towards the cost of redundancies which have included those in Scotland, and for research and development which will have benefited the mining industry in Scotland. In addition, the Institute of Occupational Medicine, in Edinburgh, has received £963,000 for its research on mining health. In 1976, the board received an ECSC loan at an advantageous rate of interest, towards a group of projects which included one at the Longannet complex, and has had various other loans towards the cost of underground plant, machinery and powered supports some of which went into Scottish collieries.