HC Deb 20 January 2000 vol 342 cc521-2W
Mr. Bill O'Brien

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what were the total tonnages of coal delivered to power stations in Great Britain in 1999, giving the breakdown between(a) collieries in England, Scotland and Wales and (b) deep mines and opencast. [105513]

Mrs. Liddell

Figures for 1999 as a whole are not yet available, but in the first three quarters of 1999 it is estimated that of the 24 million tonnes of coal delivered from collieries and opencast sites in Great Britain to UK power stations, about 15 million tonnes came from England, four million tonnes came from Scotland and less than one million tonnes from Wales with a further four million tonnes from small producers that cannot be readily allocated geographically. Of the 24 million tonnes about 13 million tonnes was deep mined and about 11 million tonnes opencast and recovered coal.

A further five million tonnes of imported coal were reported by power stations in the first three quarters of 1999.

Mr. Bill O'Brien

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much coal was imported into the United Kingdom in 1999(a) in total and (b) from each country supplying coal to the United Kingdom. [105514]

Mrs. Liddell

Figures for 1999 as a whole are not yet available, but in the first three quarters of 1999, it is estimated that 14.6 million tonnes of coal were imported into the UK.

Coal imported1 into UK, January to September 1999
Country Thousand tones
Belgium/Luxembourg 41
France 2
Germany 12
Irish Republic 39
Netherlands 136
Total EU2 230
Australia 4,336
Canada 1,331
China 219
Colombia 2,603
Indonesia 50
Mozambique 19
Norway 21
Poland 975
Russia 83
South Africa 2,101
USA 2,107
Venezuela 435
Vietnam 114
Total Non EU 14,392
Total all countries 14,622
1 Country of origin basis.
2 Imports from EU countries include coal from outside the EC routed through these countries.