British Coal

HC Deb 21 May 1992 vol 208 cc220-1W

Mr. John Evans

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the productivity of(a) the coal industry in Germany and (b) British Coal in 1990, 1991 and the current year.

Mr. Eggar

The information is as follows:

Calendar Year Productivity, (kg per man hour underground)
	(a) German coal industry	(b) United Kingdom coal industry
1990	673	704
19911	695	794
1992	n/a	2921
1 The figures for 1991 and 1992 are provisional.
2 Figures for British Coal show an increase of 16 per cent. for the first three months of 1992 over the comparable period of 1991.

Mr. John Evans

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the specific collieries which his Department's advisers, NM Rothschild, predict will close following privatisation of British Coal.

Mr. Eggar

Rothschilds have not made any predictions on specific collieries closing following privatisation of British Coal. They were asked to analyse options for privatisation and inevitably had to do this against a range of possibilities about the demand for coal.