Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 214810, what steps he plans to take to encourage his Department's contractors to purchase Monckton Coke through the British Coal Concessionary Fuel Scheme; and if he will take steps to enable future purchases of that fuel to be brought forward.

Under the terms of the National Concessionary Fuel Scheme agreed between British Coal and the mining unions, and inherited by the Government following privatisation in 1994, the choice of solid fuel a concessionaire wishes to receive is at the individual beneficiary’s discretion. At present of a total of 11,000 solid fuel concessionaires under 600 receive product sourced from Monckton under the Scheme, with a current total tonnage purchased of just under 2,700 tonnes per annum.

Due to fuel quality degradation our distribution contractors are limited in the levels of stocks they can retain without the burn quality being affected. In general our contractors hold 2-3 weeks of stocks for each fuel required and they have confirmed at present they hold stocks of 450 tonnes of Monckton sourced product.

We have been informed that Monckton product is expected to be available until 2016 and our contractors have confirmed they will continue to purchase Monckton sourced product so long as supplies of an acceptable quality are available. In addition we have instructed the concessionary fuel office not to promote alternative fuels to Monckton sourced product during this difficult period.