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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on coal imports of using coal mined from the proposed mine in Cumbria.

There is a global market for coking coal through which UK steel producers can source material at competitive prices and currently the majority of coking coal used at the UK’s two blast furnace sites (British Steel at Scunthorpe and Tata Steel at Port Talbot) is imported.

In their planning application to Cumbria County Council (https://planning.cumbria.gov.uk/Planning/Display/4/17/9007), West Cumbria Mining have stated that 360,000 tonnes per annum of premium metallurgical coal produced at the mine will be destined for use in the UK steel industry.