§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the report by Herriot Watt university on the impact of coal mineshafts in Stoke-on-Trent will be published. [160979]
§ Mr. HainI have today placed copies of the report in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. I am also writing to those individual hon. Members whom I know to have a keen interest in the report to send them a copy.
I know how householders have been blighted by concerns over mineshafts and I want to look at how we can help. The report shows the problems of blight are real but have many causes. Government will work with many others—the Law Society, the Coal Authority, mortgage lenders, valuers, local authorities etc.—to produce the right package of solutions. As a first step to identifying those solutions, we want to hear the views of those groups and others in the local community with an interest.
The report is being sent to relevant representative and professional bodies as well as to central and local government. It will be available on my Department's website at www.dti.gov.uk/consultations. I would be pleased to have views by 10 August 2001 on the report's findings, together with suggestions of action that individuals and organisations could take in response to the report. My Department will be seeking discussions with a number of relevant organisations. These discussions will also need to take account of the recent High Court case which the Coal Authority have accepted as finding that the information given by British Coal in mining reports prior to 1991 could in some cases be seen to have been incomplete.