Coal Industry (Hansard, 27 May 1993)

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he will take to ensure that British Coal maintains all pits at full operational levels until(a) closure decisions have been reached and (b) the pit has been offered for sale or lease; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Eggar
British Coal has given repeated assurances to myself and my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade that the fabric of collieries that it expects to offer to the private sector will be maintained both before closure decisions are taken and during the sale negotiations.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will instruct British Coal to offer all pits threatened with closure for sale or lease.

§ Mr. Eggar
British Coal has given a commitment to offer all pits that it decides it no longer wishes to operate to the private sector.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if British pits, offered for sale or lease, will be offered with plant and infrastructure existing at the time of the decision by British Coal to cease operations at the colliery; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Eggar
The sale and leasing of pits and the deployment of machinery is a matter for British Coal which will want to have regard to the needs of its continuing collieries and its overall duty to manage their assets in the most effective manner. British Coal has. of course, committed itself to giving private sector operators a genuine opportunity to take on pits that it no longer wishes to operate.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he is taking to monitor redundancy arrangements conducted by British Coal in respect of their effect on independent reviews of threatened collieries.

§ Mr. Eggar
The detailed terms and operation of British Coal's redundancy scheme are a matter for the corporation.

§ Mr. Couchman
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about British Coal's plans to offer closing pits to the private sector.

§ Mr. Heseltine
British Coal has announced today that it is advertising four pits, Cotgrave, Silverhill, Easington and Bolsover, for disposal to the private sector.
693W
In the White Paper "The Prospects for Coal", Cm. 2235, the Government welcomed British Coal's commitment to offer to the private sector pits that British Coal does not itself wish to keep in production. I understand that British Coal has confirmed its intention to place further advertisements for all other pits in this category during the next few weeks.

§ Mr. Hinchliffe
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what predictions he has for(a) British Coal, (b) National Power and (c) PowerGen, of future market share as suppliers of coal to British industry; and what predictions he has for proportion of imported coal for each company, to the year 2000.

§ Mr. Eggar
Estimates of the supply of coal by British Coal to industry were included in the report on "Markets for Coal" by Caminus Energy which was produced as part of my Department's coal review. A copy of this report is available in the Library of the House.