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Coal Health Claims

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will express the full and final offers of compensation for respiratory disease and vibration white finger as a percentage of live and deceased receipts for each constituency on the damages paid, broken down by constituency, page of her Department's Coal Health Claims website. [58839]

Mr. Wilson: The Department's claims handlers, IRISC, are unable to provide a breakdown of offers made by constituency in the time available. However, IRISC have been requested to provide a breakdown of offers made as part of the monthly constituency breakdown posted on the Department's Coal Health Claims website—www.dti.gov.uk/coalhealth. It is anticipated that these will be available in the next few months.

Coal Industry

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many miners were employed in the coal industry in each year since 1990 in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales. [60309]

Mr. Wilson: Separate figures for Scotland, England and Wales are not available prior to 1996. Figures listed below for the period 1990–95 are taken from British Coal Colliery books.

	Total	Scotland	England	Wales
1990	49,000	—	—	—
1991	38,000	—	—	—
1992	28,000	—	—	—
1993	10,000	—	—	—
1994	7,000	—	—	—
1995	12,000	—	—	—
1996	14,776	1,923	11,146	1,707
1997	17,300	2,370	13,505	1,425
1998	17,182	2,476	13,171	1,535
1999	14,215	2,103	10,898	1,214
2000	11,228	1,895	8,364	969
2001(52)	11,430	2,038	8,384	1,008

⁽⁵²⁾ Provisional

Notes:

1. Figures up to 1994 record underground wage earners on British Coal Colliery books.

2. Figures from 1995 record the total number of persons employed during the year, and records deep mines only, including contractors.

Source:

1. Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 1981.

2. The Coal Authority.

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much coal was imported into England in each year since 1997. [60282]

Mr. Wilson: Total imports of coal into the UK since 1997, in millions of tonnes, were as follows:

	Million tonnes
1997	19.7
1998	21.2
1999	20.3
2000	23.4
2001(53)	35.5

⁽⁵³⁾ Provisional

Source:

Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 2001 (The Stationery Office); Energy Trends, March 2002 (DTI publication).

10 Jun 2002 : Column 986W

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much anthracite has been produced in Wales in each year since 1997. [60307]

Mr. Wilson: Figures which are provided by coal producers to the Coal Authority are restricted to preserve individual company confidentiality. Publicly available total production figures for Wales since 1987, in millions of tonnes, are shown below. The majority of coal produced in Wales is anthracite.

	Million tonnes
1997	3.2
1998	2.5
1999	2.2
2000	2.1
2001(54)	2.1

⁽⁵⁴⁾ Provisional

Source:

Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics (The Stationery Office)

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much deep-mined coal has been produced in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales in each year since 1997. [60279]

Mr. Wilson: The information available on the amount of deep-mined coal produced in Scotland, England and Wales relates to financial years and, in millions of tonnes, is as follows:

Output of deep-mined coal⁽⁵⁵⁾

	Scotland	England	Wales
1996–97	1.4	29.8	0.9
1997–98	1.9	25.4	0.8
1998–99	1.6	21.4	0.7
1999–2000	1.0	17.9	0.6
2000–01	0.7	15.9	0.7
2001–02	0.8	16.7	0.7

⁽⁵⁵⁾ Output is the tonnage declared by operators to the Coal Authority, including estimated tonnages.

Source:

Coal Authority data as published in the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 2001 (The Stationery Office).

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people were employed in opencast production in each year since 1997 in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) England. [60286]

Mr. Wilson: The number of people employed in opencast coal production in Scotland, Wales and England since 1997 was as follows:

	Scotland	Wales	England
1997	1,169	632	1,918
1998	1,600	694	2,265
1999	1,301	550	1,882
2000	1,252	433	1,300
2001	1,267	456	1,068
2002	1,688	433	1,211

Source:

Coal Authority data as published in the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 2001 (The Stationery Office).

10 Jun 2002 : Column 987W

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much opencast coal has been produced in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales in each year since 1997. [60280]

Mr. Wilson: The information available on the total amount of opencast coal produced in Scotland, England and Wales relates to financial years and was, in millions of tonnes, as follows:

Output of opencast coal⁽⁵⁶⁾

	Scotland	England	Wales
1996–97	5.4	8.4	2.3
1997–98	6.3	8.1	1.8
1998–99	6.4	7.0	1.5
1999–2000	7.2	6.2	1.5
2000–01	7.1	4.8	1.4
2001–02	8.2	4.9	1.2

⁽⁵⁶⁾ Output is the tonnage declared by operators to the Coal Authority, including estimated tonnages.

Source:

Coal Authority data as published in the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 2001 (The Stationery Office).

Meeting (Detroit)

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the G8 nations meeting in Detroit; which members of her Department attended; what discussions took place; and what conclusions were reached. [58539]

Ms Hewitt: My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy and Construction, represented the UK at the G8 meeting of energy ministers, Detroit, 3 May 2002. He was supported by the Director General for Energy and four other officials.

Ministers highlighted the role of market forces, diversification of supplies, and energy efficiency in enhancing security of supply. Closer dialogue, and sharing of data and expertise were also needed, along with the physical protection of energy facilities and more flexible energy transport networks.

Ministers also highlighted the importance of improved energy security to economic growth, environmental protection and therefore sustainable development. In the associated open event for industry and non-government organisations, Brian Wilson emphasised the role of clean, reliable energy sources in addressing world poverty, and supported the recommendations of the G8 Renewable Energy Task Force. G8 Ministers reaffirmed the importance of renewable sources, as recognised by the Genoa G8 Economic Summit. They committed to encourage the development and introduction of clean energy technologies, including renewables, as well as energy efficiency, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and elsewhere. They agreed also to strengthen co-operation on energy science and technology, particularly in the areas of emerging renewable sources, energy efficiency, and cleaner energy technologies.

There were no formal conclusions but the co-Chairs, Spencer Abraham, US Energy Secretary and Herb Dhaliwal, Canadian minister for Natural Resources issued a statement, the text of which has today been placed in the Libraries of the House.

10 Jun 2002 : Column 988W

Arms Trade

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what further measures she plans to take to tackle corruption in the arms trade involving UK individuals and companies; and if she will make a statement. [58750]

Nigel Griffiths: We view corruption in the arms trade as seriously, as corruption in any other field of commerce.

The UK signed up to the OECD Convention On Combating Bribery Of Foreign Public Officials In International Business Transactions in December 1997. The UK will continue to work with OECD countries and others to extend and deepen international commitments designed to stamp out bribery.

The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), which came into effect on 14 February 2002, allows the UK authorities to prosecute UK citizens and companies for bribery even when the act takes place abroad, and made explicit that the legislation covered foreign public officials.

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