§ Mr. IllsleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether, in the light of recent medical evidence about the effects of opencast coal mining operations on the health of local populations, he will exercise his powers under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 1(1)(d) and 5(1) to place a duty on any person having control of an opencast coal mining operation to use the best practicable means to prevent emission into the atmosphere from the premises of noxious or offensive fumes and for rendering harmless and inoffensive such substances as may be so emitted; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TrippierI have been asked to reply.
Opencast coal mining, in common with other mining and quarrying activities, is not a process prescribed under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for the application of sections 1(1)(d) and 5(1) of the Act. There is already a strong framework of control over such operations under other parts of the 1974 Act and in the Mines and Quarries Act 1954. Responsibility for enforcement rests with Her Majesty's mines and quarries inspectorate, which already carries out tests at selected opencast sites for the presence of any respirable silica in airborne respirable dust.
I am aware of newspaper articles suggesting that opencast coal mining operations may have a significant 666W effect on the health of the local population. I understand that the HSE considers that this matter could be tested only by a long-term study.
Nevertheless, the effects of dust and other impacts associated with opencasting are all matters to be considered by mineral planning authorities as part of the normal planning process in considering applications to work coal or other minerals by opencast methods.