Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made a recent estimate of levels of Chinese investment in West Cumbria Mining Ltd’s proposed Woodhouse Colliery deep coal mine project in Whitehaven, West Cumbria.

Planning decisions are made at a local level wherever possible. The planning application for the Whitehaven coal mine has not been called in by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and is a matter for Cumbria County Council to decide. There is no consultation role for my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in this decision.