§ Mr. TippingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how much financial support has been received from the European Community to help fund redundancy payments to mineworkers for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. EggarThe European Coal and Steel Community provided non-repayable aid under article 56 of the ECSC treaty as follows:
£ million 1993–94 8.0 1992–93 32.2 1991–92 36.2 1990–91 17.9 1989–90 22.3 This aid has been provided in respect of a number of areas of restructuring costs including redundancy payments and retraining. Separate figures for assistance with redundancy payments are not readily available.
182W
§ Mr. TippingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many applications he has received for the subsidy outlined in the "The Prospects for Coal" for additional sales of deep-mined coal to the generators; how many of these have been successful; how many tonnes of coal each involves; and what is the total amount of subsidy that has now been paid.
§ Mr. EggarSince the coal subsidy scheme was announced in March 1993, my Department has received five applications. Four offers have been made so far, two to British Coal and two to the private sector. These cover the delivery of almost 2 million tonnes of coal over the period 1 April 1993 to 31 March 1995. One application is currently under consideration.
To date, the European Commission has approved payment only in respect of production in 1993 and a cumulative total of £1,054,815 has been paid. Authorisation is awaited from the Commission in respect of production from 1 January 1994.
§ Mr. TippingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how much financial assistance he has made available to British Coal to fund redundancy payments to mineworkers for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. EggarUnder section 3 of the Coal Industry Act 1987 the Government have provided grant aid to British Coal in respect of work force reductions and redeployment over the last five financial years as follows:
£ million 1993–94 574.4 1992–93 467.3 1991–92 310.3 1990–91 199.4 1989–90 354.0 Separate figures for grant aid for redundancy payments specifically for mineworkers are not readily available.