§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the employment and energy policy consequences of the projected reduction of the coal burn of the South of Scotland Electricity Board from 7,800,000 tonnes in 1981 to 4,200,000 tonnes in 1984 in so far as they fall within his responsibility; and if he will give an estimate of the requirement for coal for electricity generation in Scotland for each of the next five years.
§ Mr. Allan StewartIt is an objective of the South of Scotland Electricity Board that it should carry out its operations with maximum efficiency. The choice of fuels which best fulfil this requirement is a matter for the board's commercial judgment. The Government are 267W committed to securing a long-term viable future for the coal industry, which will continue to play its part in electricity generation in Scotland. The employment implications of any agreement to supply coal are a matter for the National Coal Board.
In 1982–83 total coal burn including slurry by SSEB to meet Scottish requirements was approximately 4.25 million tonnes. The corresponding figure for the year beginning 1 November 1983 is expected to rise to about 4.5 million tonnes. For the future, when the use of gas liquids at Peterhead ends, the board expects its total coal burn to return to above 6 million tonnes per annum during the period before Torness is fully commissioned. These figures exclude any coal burn to provide a net exchange of power to England and Wales, which accounted for 0.85 million tonnes of additional coal burn in 1982–83.
Numbers on waiting lists Health Board 31 March 1981 30 September 1981 31 March 1982* 30 September 1982† Argyll and Clyde 6,447 6,351 6,258 4,753 Ayrshire and Arran 4,157 4,005 4,089 4,731 Borders 462 411 392 388 Dumfries and Galloway 2,002 1,883 1,851 2,894 Fife 4,223 3,974 4,360 6,857 Forth Valley 3,970 3,466 3,107 3,893 Grampian 7,265 7,012 7,297 10,651 Greater Glasgow 15,704 15,776 15,332 16,374 Highland 1,534 1,224 1,476 2,772 Lanarkshire 5,500 5,247 5,871 9,110 Lothian 10,579 9,715 10,431 16,915 Orkney 48 46 — 42 Shetland — — — 166 Tayside 5,486 5,599 5,911 5,477 Western Isles 302 315 317 163 Scotland 67,679 65,024 66,692 85,186 * Provisional figures. † Provisional figures for 30 September 1982 but incomplete as total figures not available for all areas. The increase from 31 March 1982 to 30 September 1982 reflects one of the effects of the industrial action in the NHS during that period.