Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the final recipient of Restoration Lump Sum was (a) private companies or (b) the public purse.

The British Coal Corporation operated a practice whereby it retained a portion of sums payable to those private sector firms it contracted to operate surface mining sites on its behalf. On a site by site basis, those formed lump sums which were progressively paid to the contractor for the purposes of funding restoration.