Q14 Mr. Dave Anderson: When you were appointed, we were all looking forward to having a good working relationship, I think it is step in the right direction. One of the things that has been raised, and we raised it with the Civil Service when we met them, is the problem about getting responses to answers. Parliamentary questions that have been down for some time now have not been responded to. We understand that there are teething problems, but do you have targets for responding? Certainly we have targets for responding to people and they are not happy when we do not meet them.

Edward Miliband: There has been an issue about the correspondence and various issues and it is being sorted out urgently and does need to be sorted out. In my view, it is partly the move to a new department, and the upsurge in activity and interest which maybe people were not adequately prepared for, but it is being urgently sorted out.

Ms Wallace: I said to you when you came to the department for a briefing that we were not at all satisfied with our performance on this. While there are some factors that have played into that, they are not excuses. We are in the middle of a blitz on outstanding correspondence. We have halved the backlog in the last week, and our target is to clear the whole of the backlog (that is, correspondence that is over its target) by the beginning of March, so it is very actively being worked on. Some of the things that have delayed us have been simply the disruption of a new department which has generated more interest, and trying to make sure that we give people better answers as well as timely answers. But we want to move to a situation where we are performing well against a good target and we are sorry that we have not managed to do that in our first months.

Q15 Mr. Dave Anderson: Can you have a blitz on parliamentary questions as well?

Ms Wallace: Yes, we will as well.

Q16 Mr. Dave Anderson: So they can be answered in less than two months.

Ms Wallace: Yes.

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Q54 Paddy Tipping: You come from a coalfield background. What can you do to help the coal industry? I know you have been talking to UK Coal and you want to expand at Harworth, but in the present financial market it is pretty difficult. There may be something you could do there. Even if we get the economics right, the environment is important too. I am worried about the competition you are running on carbon capture and storage. It is too little too late. We need to do more. We need to be more positive. Finally, I am not at all clear where the money is coming from to fund the CCS budget. There is a rumour that there is not any money and the Treasury is jibbing. Could you please reassure me?

Edward Miliband: That is very unfair on the Treasury.

Q55 Mr. Dave Anderson: Is it true?

Edward Miliband: Let me deal with both parts of those questions. On the indigenous coal industry, yes, we are talking to UK Coal and I think the indigenous coal industry that we have is important. I have a pit in my constituency which has reopened, Hatfield, which is owned by Richard Budge. I think that is important. As like other sectors, I think they face a difficult investment climate. We are talking to them about the finances that might be available from the European Investment Bank and elsewhere to help them and we are obviously in discussions with them. On the wider question about coal and CCS, let me just describe what my position is. There is one position that says coal is just a dirty fuel and we should not build any coal fired power stations, there is a moratorium situation and I do not think that is right for energy security and I do not think it is right for climate change either. If you think about China, for example, we have a responsibility to try, given the number of coal fired power stations that are being built in China, and advance the CCS technology. There is another position, which is to carry on building unabated coal fired power stations forever and I do not think that is the right position either. Lord Turner in his Climate Change Committee report tried to strike the right balance between meeting our security of supply needs and getting coal fired power stations with CCS built and understanding where we were with the technology. That is what we are seeking to do. We are going to be saying more about this in the coming weeks. I think we have got to go beyond what we consulted on last year, which is just carbon capture readiness. I personally do not think that that is adequate as a position in terms of a climate change and the challenge we tackle and in terms of driving CCS towards the market. That is what we are trying to do. I think we should have more than one demonstration project personally and I think that is what we should be aspiring to do. We argued very strongly in Europe for CCS to be part of the 2020 climate and energy package. There is some scepticism and there is €9 billion available between 2012 and 2020 for CCS. I think we need part of that. I think that should help us to have more than one demonstration project. My aspiration is to have more than one demonstration project and we are going to be saying more about that in the coming weeks.

Q56 Chairman: Is it on track and on budget?

Edward Miliband: I think we can achieve the demonstration project and it is certainly our intention to do it. We were due by next year to choose a bidder and that remains our intention.

Q57 Mr. Dave Anderson: When you opened you talked about dynamic markets and strategic government. It does not seem very dynamic when you have reopened one colliery in the last ten years and the other one that Paddy mentioned is struggling to reopen, despite the fact there are at least 40 million tonnes of coal there ready to be waiting to be got and if it is not reopened 800 jobs will go there. You wrote to me to say that European legislation would not allow you to help in Harworth, for example. Figures from your own Department show that coal is our biggest supplier of indigenous energy in this country. Are there any plans at all to go into other areas to redevelop collieries or other forms of utilising the coal in this country because there is clearly lots of coal there but we need to close the gap on that?

Edward Miliband: You need both parts of the equation, it seems to me. When UK Coal come to us and say, "We’ve got these plans at Harworth and we want to talk to you about them," obviously we talk to them. We are talking to them about them. I do not want to give a misleading impression. I cannot sit here and promise that we are going to provide a big subsidy to get that to re-open. They are facing a credit crunch like everyone else but, like governments round the world, we face a difficult fiscal environment quite apart from the European rules. What we do want to do is work with them as much as we can to work out ways in which, if this is an economically viable project and that is an important thing to say and they think it is and lots of people think it is, there might be finance available. That is why I mentioned the European Investment Bank. I agree with you about the role indigenous coal can play. I mentioned in answer to Paddy’s question about Hatfield in my constituency. This is not a publicly owned industry; it is a privately owned industry. If people come to us and say we have got plans in relation to a particular pit that we want to re-open or that we think can go forward, as UK Coal have done to us on Harworth, then we discuss it with them and that is what we are doing.

Q58 Mr. Dave Anderson: What about further development in things like underground gasification? Is any support being given to that?

Edward Miliband: When Paddy asked me about the demonstration project I said we wanted more than one demonstration project. Part of it is finding ways in which we can test out and support a range of technologies. I know you have got a particular interest in the technology that you are talking about. I think we need to support a range of technologies in this area which can make coal cleaner, that is very important.

This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.

The full transcript may be read here.

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT