Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much coal was imported for use in (a) UK coal fired power stations (b) UK steel works and (c) other industrial processes in 2018.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
BEIS does not hold data identifying the source of the coal supplied to each consumer.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much coal the UK has stockpiled.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Stocks of coal are held by producers, electricity generators and others. Total stocks at the end of 2018 were 5.2 million tonnes, which remains steady when compared with 2017.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the timeframe is for each active coal-fired power stations in the UK to stop producing electricity; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
In January 2018 we set out that all coal-fired power stations in GB will need to close by 1 October 2025 unless they invest to reduce their emissions to 450g CO2 per kWh. The exact timing of closure decisions or investments in abatement technology is a commercial matter for the relevant plant owner.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the (a) names and (b) locations of surface coal mines in the UK that are scheduled to cease producing coal for all purposes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The list of surface coal mines, their locations and the date of when they are currently licensed until is below, as at March 2019. To note applications can be made to extend licences so the licence date shown is not necessarily when a mine will cease production of coal.
Name of mine | Location | Currently Licensed Until |
Bradley | Durham | 17/08/2020 |
Brenkley Lane | Newcastle upon Tyne | 01/09/2021 |
East Pit East Revised | Neath Port Talbot | 21/10/2104 |
Ffos-y-Fran | Merthyr Tydfil | 04/02/2097 |
Field House | Durham | 07/11/2020 |
Glan Lash | Carmarthenshire | 31/03/2019 |
Halton-Le-Gate | Northumberland | 04/07/2019 |
Harrington Reclamation | Derbyshire | 07/01/2025 |
House of Water | East Ayrshire | 04/12/2019 |
Nant Helen | Powys | 08/07/2019 |
Shotton Surface Mine | Northumberland | 31/01/2020 |
Shotton SW & Triangle | Northumberland | 31/01/2020 |
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the (a) name and (b) location of surface coal mines in the UK that are producing coal for all purposes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The list of surface coal mines and their locations is below, as of March 2019.
Name of mine | Location |
Bradley | Durham |
Brenkley Lane | Newcastle upon Tyne |
East Pit East Revised | Neath Port Talbot |
Ffos-y-Fran | Merthyr Tydfil |
Field House | Durham |
Glan Lash | Carmarthenshire |
Halton-Le-Gate | Northumberland |
Harrington Reclamation | Derbyshire |
House of Water | East Ayrshire |
Nant Helen | Powys |
Shotton Surface Mine | Northumberland |
Shotton SW & Triangle | Northumberland |
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department monitors the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted by importing minerals such as (a) clay, (b) chalk, (c) limestone and (d) coal to the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The UK is an Annex I party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC adopted the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/) for Annex I countries in Decision 24/CP.19. The UK is thus required to make use of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines in the compilation of the UK’s greenhouse gas inventory. The guidelines define national greenhouse gas inventories as including only emissions which take place within each country’s territorial boundary. Consequently emissions associated with importing minerals from territories outside the UK are not included.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the UK government considers coal for (a) steel and (b) cement manufacture to be a strategically important mineral; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government recognises the importance of coal as a raw material for cement producers, and in primary steel production where coke and iron ore are the principle inputs to the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot. Currently, there are well-functioning global markets for the types of coal required in the UK industrial base and these materials are not in short supply. As part of the Industrial Strategy we have secured a sector deal with the UK construction sector, and remain in close dialogue with the UK steel sector in pursuit of a similar outcome. Through these conversations neither sector has raised concerns regarding coal. In addition to the Department’s current efforts in encouraging all UK businesses to prepare resilient contingency plans to ensure continuation of supply for their key inputs (including materials) as we leave the EU, all commercial operators in these sectors will have been constantly monitoring their key dependencies and risks as responsible businesses.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much coal imports to the UK from Russia increased in (a) tonnage and (b) proportion terms from (i) 2016-2017 and (ii) 2017-2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Coal is a globally traded commodity and the UK sources coal from a range of countries including Russia, US, Colombia and Australia. The UK’s overall consumption of coal has been falling - demand in 2017 was less than a quarter of that seen in 2000. Over that period the tonnage of coal imports from Russia has been on a downward trend falling from 18.1m tonnes in 2012 to 3.9m tonnes in 2017, representing a decrease of 78%. Total UK coal imports in 2016 were at their lowest in 34 years due to lower demand from electricity generators and so this year is unrepresentative when compared to 2017 in isolation. In 2016, 2.3 million tonnes (27%) of the UK’s total coal imports came from Russia and this increased to 3.9 million tonnes (46%) in 2017.
Comparative data for the period 2017-2018 is not yet available.
This information has been cited from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2017-main-report
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2018-main-report
and
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) minimum health and safety and (b) environmental production standards that overseas coal producers would have to meet before they are allowed to export coal to the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Health, safety and environmental standards for the mining of coal is an important issue. The industry’s Bettercoal initiative works to support the majority of UK coal buyers on responsible sourcing of coal on the global market — particularly around social, environmental, and ethical practices in the supply chain.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland are not connected to the mains gas grid; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The table below shows the latest estimates of households not connected to the gas network by country of the UK. Please note that there is no definitive source for the number of households not on the gas grid, so BEIS estimates these figures by subtracting the number of domestic gas meters from the estimated number of households.
Nation | Number of households1 | Estimated number of households not connected to the gas network1 | % |
England | 23,229,000 | 3,024,000 | 13% |
Scotland | 2,452,000 | 495,000 | 20% |
Wales | 1,342,000 | 225,000 | 17% |
Northern Ireland | 730,0002 | 497,0003 | 68% |
Total | 27,753,000 | 4,241,000 | 15% |
Source: (1) Subnational gas consumption 2016, BEIS, except for NI see footnote 3; (2) Table 401: Household projections, United Kingdom, 1961-2039, MHCLG 2016 estimate; (3) NI Utility Regulator Retail Market Monitoring Quarterly Transparency Report