In November 2024, the UK Government announced its commitment to legislating a ban of new coal mining licences. This was a commitment that Coal Action Network had previously secured in the Government's pre-election manifesto, along with four other major parties.

Despite this, one loophole remains in the legislation which could still allow millions of tonnes of coal to be extracted from coal tips throughout the UK. Since the announcement we have continued to pressure the Government to ensure that this loophole is closed and that all types of coal extraction are banned.

The next step in this work is to provide the Government with the precise wording that could be used to ensure that coal tips do not remain the sole place where coal can be mined at commercial scale. To do this we commissioned advice from leading environmental barristers Estelle Dehon KC and Rowan Clapp.

The advice  has been sent to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP; Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP; and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The advice we received sets out how to change the Coal Industry Act 1994 so the ban of new coal mining licences also clearly covers coal-tip extraction.

Until now, the wording of the Act has been ambiguous. Without being made clearer, tip coal has been entering the energy market and could continue to do so if the legislation does not  remove this ambiguity. In turn, this would undermine the ban’s purpose. A small, targeted, amendment to sections 65(1) and 25(2) will align the licencing regime with the ban’s intent.

Section 65 (Definitions)
Expand “coal-mining operations” to cover tip-recovery:

“winning, working and or otherwise getting coal (whether underground, or in the course of opencast operations, or in the course of obtaining coal deposited as or as part of waste material from coal mining operations)”

1. 1. Section 25(2)(a) (Scope of Licensable Operations)
      Clarify that licensable activities include:
   2. “the winning, working or getting… of any coal (including coal deposited as or as part of waste material from coal mining operations)…”
   3. Section 26 (Restriction on Granting Licences)
      Amend to prohibit the Authority from granting licences for coal-tip recovery, e.g.:
2. “the Authority shall not grant a licence under this Part” for tip extraction.

Ensuring Coverage in Wales

• Section 26A sets a two-step approval for Welsh licences (Authority → Welsh Ministers).
• Preventing the Authority from issuing any tip-extraction licence means the Welsh Ministers’ second-stage approval never arises—thus banning tip recovery UK-wide, including Wales.

Incidental Coal Agreements (ICAs) are a mechanism which already exists – to allow coal to be extracted for safety or remediation purposes. This will still be needed to ensure that the removal of coal for these purposes can continue. Fee bands for ICAs top out at 1,000 tonnes, yet many tip-reclamation schemes propose extracting well over 100 times that amount, undermining any claim that coal removal is merely “incidental.”

Without a clear licensing requirement, millions of tonnes of coal could legally flow from tips across the UK, undermining the licence ban’s aim.