asked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he can state how many collieries there are throughout the country; the number of factors; the number of factors' salesmen; the number of merchants; the number of people employed by merchants; the number of retailers and number of retailers' employees; and the numbers respectively, in Bournemouth, Eastbourne, Brighton and London.

The total number of collieries at present producing coal is 1,400. The total number of merchants retailing coal is over 20.000, of whom 37 trade from Bournemouth and Christchurch, 13 from Eastbourne, 31 from Brighton, and 1,254 from the Metropolitan Police area. I regret that the other information asked for is not available.