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.

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