HC Deb 05 June 1980 vol 985 c783W
Mr. Skinner

asked the Secretary of State for Energy what has been the level of opencast coal production for the years 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.

Mr. John Moore

Information on opencast coal production is published monthly in the Department'sEnergy Trends, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. For convenience, the information requested, including the latest available information for 1980, is given below:

Opencast coal production, United Kingdom

thousand tonnes
1976 11,944
1977 13,551
1978 14,167
1979 12,862
1980 January—April 4,561

For comparison purposes, production in January—April 1979 was 3,971thousand tonnes.