§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what he estimates would be the cost of subsidising British coal to reduce coal imports to 2 million tonnes per annum.
§ Mr. John MooreAs my right hon. Friend told the House on 19 February, at the tripartite meeting of the coal industry on the previous day both sides of the industry expressed their hope that coal imports could be reduced to their irreducible minimum. I said that I would be prepared to look at what could be done to go in this direction.
At the further tripartite meeting on 25 February the National Coal Board said that it believed that 3 million tonnes of imports could be displaced by domestic production without causing its customers quality problems, but that the point at which that reduction could be achieved would depend on the nature of the import contracts negotiated by the CEGB and BSC, and on the board's discussions with them. These discussions are continuing.