§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Prime Minister if he will publish an analysis of the economic and employment effects of £500 million extra capital investment in railways compared with the same sum spent on supporting deep coal mining.
§ The Prime MinisterThe economic and employment effects of £500 million extra capital expenditure on the 549W railways would depend on the nature of the investment and on its economic return. The effect of spending the same amount on supporting deep coal mining would depend on the industry's ability to exploit the opportunity for subsidised sales in the market circumstances it faced. In either case, account would of course need to be taken where the money would be found as well as how it would be spent.