To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what is the current level of deep-mined coal production in Britain; and how many people are employed in deep-mined coal production.

In the most recent completed financial year, 1990–91, the British Coal Corporation produced 72·3 million tonnes of coal from deep mines. At the end of that financial year, in March 1991, the corporation had 61,351 industrial employees at its deep mines.Privately owned mines, with licences to work coal underground, produced 1 million tonnes and employed 1,628 people.