Corporate report

The Coal Authority annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023: Performance report

Updated 21 August 2023

1. Overview

The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body and partner organisation of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

1.1 Our mission

Making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

1.2 Our purpose:

• we keep people safe and provide peace of mind
• we protect and enhance the environment
• we use our information and expertise to help people make informed decisions
• we create value and minimise cost to the taxpayer

We use our skills to provide services to other government departments and agencies, local governments and commercial partners.

We work with departments across UK Government to deliver on UK Government priorities including the transition to net zero, levelling up, national resilience, an improved environment and a sustainable economy. We also contribute to the wider environmental, social and economic priorities of the Scottish and Welsh governments. By sharing our knowledge and expertise, we support them and our partners to create safer, cleaner and greener nations for us all.

1.3 Our governance:

We have an independent board responsible for setting our strategic direction and holding us to account. The board ensures that our statutory duties are carried out effectively and that we bring our mission, purpose and values to life.

Our chair and board members have relevant experience to support our work.

Non-executive directors are recruited and appointed to the board by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Executive directors are recruited to their posts by the board and some of them are then appointed to the board, also by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

1.4 Our values

Trusted:

• we act with integrity
• we’re open and transparent
• we deliver on our commitments

Inclusive:

• we promote a culture of mutual respect
• we recognise that our differences make us stronger
• we work with others to achieve our mission

Progressive:

• we’re open minded and innovative
• we recognise that the past can help us shape the future
• we listen and learn

2. Performance Report

During 2022 to 2023, across the 3 nations we serve:

2.1 Kept people safe and provided peace of mind

10,476 mine entry inspections carried out

770 mining hazards and subsidence claims investigated

656 inspections on spoil heaps (tips) owned by the Coal Authority and our partners

2.2 Used our information and expertise to help people make informed decisions

157,314 mining reports delivered

1,709 permits to intersect coal issued

10,236 planning consultation responses provided

2.3 Created value and minimised cost to the taxpayer

£56,000 generated from by-product sales

£6.8 million of income generated through our advisory services

9 sites created with additional social and environmental value

2.4 Protected and enhanced the environment

220 billion litres - the capacity created to treat mine water

3,756 tonnes of iron solids prevented from entering water courses

89% of our ochre and iron solid waste reused or recycled

3. Chair’s foreword

I am pleased to introduce our first annual report and accounts against our new 2022 to 2025 business plan and 10 year vision.

Implementing this approach has allowed us to really look forward, innovate and evolve towards the future. I’ve been delighted to see further opportunities becoming reality including mine water heat, the beneficial use of by-products and continued growth in our service provision to the governments we serve and with other public and private sector bodies. I’m also excited to see more social and environmental value opportunities being proactively pursued alongside economic effectiveness as we deliver against the specifics of our business plan and the broader ambitions of our 2032 vision.

We were pleased to host officials in March onsite in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to demonstrate challenges in addressing land subsidence, mine shaft and drift remediation to allow social value from the redevelopment of a listed building and surrounding land and mine water treatment to protect drinking water. These are just a few aspects of our work and responsibilities at any point in time. We look forward to working with the department and independent review team during our arm’s length body review in 2023 to 2024.

Through the year we’ve also continued to work closely with the Welsh and Scottish governments in delivering across Great Britain. You can read more about our work in Scotland, Wales and England in our case studies which include a range of examples of our work as well as specific statistics for each country.

Every aspect of our work contributes strongly to economic growth, levelling up and energy security. Research from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust ^{[footnote 1]} shows that, as a whole, coalfield areas are more deprived than the Great Britain average. We work with local businesses and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) wherever possible to ensure we are spending money directly in the communities where we operate and to support levelling up. Twenty-seven per cent of our spend in 2022 to 23 was with SMEs. Our work ensures confidence in the coalfield housing market which is essential when 25% of all homes and properties across Great Britain are on the coalfield and we’ve been working innovatively with financial lenders and other partners (including the Geospatial Commission and Geo6 bodies) to develop digital products to help modernise and improve lending decisions. The board are pleased that our new data and information plan, which will be published in 2023, will further set out our ambitions and commitments in this area.

As a direct contribution to energy security I was delighted to see the Gateshead Council mine energy scheme become fully operational in March 2023. This is the first large scale mine heat energy scheme in the country and will be a pathfinder for other schemes in the pipeline. I commend Gateshead Council for their foresight and ambition and we look forward to working with them as well as with councils, partners and governments across Great Britain to make multiple low carbon mine water heat schemes a reality and make a significant contribution to the energy security and net zero ambitions of the 3 governments we serve. I also welcome our new sustainability plan which demonstrates how we will achieve the ambition of our business plan and vision in this area and generate more renewable energy from our assets over the years ahead.

The board and I were delighted to see the Coal Authority sign contracts with AB Agri in January 2023 to provide an initial 700 tonnes of ochre per year from 2 of our mine water treatment schemes for use in anaerobic digestion. This contract has the potential to grow over the years ahead and is a great example of circular economy thinking as it prevents a useful material from going to landfill, saves us money in landfill charges and raises income from the product instead. Its use in anaerobic digestion plants in the UK reduces the need for ochre and iron chemicals to be imported from Europe which saves cost, reduces carbon emissions and makes supply lines more secure. This is part of our ambition to reuse or recycle 95% of the iron ochre and iron solids generated from our schemes and prevent disposal to landfill and we will be working even more creatively over the years ahead to make this a reality.

When reading our accounts you’ll notice that our provisions balance, reflecting the future cost of resolving the impacts of past coal mining, has changed again this year, decreasing by œ3.4 billion from £5.6 billion to £2.2 billion at March 2023. This balance is calculated by applying HM Treasury assumptions on the value of money at various points in time in the future to a forecast of cash flows at today’s prices. Our forecast of these underlying cash flows has increased by £0.5 billion to £3.4 billion, primarily reflecting significant increases as a result of high rates of inflation, especially in power and chemical costs affecting mine water schemes, and the trend over recent years of managing an increasing number of complex public safety incidents. We expect the impacts of climate change adaptation to increase the provisions over time as we undertake more research and are also aware of the potential implications of the work we are currently doing to better understand the impact of saline water recovery in England. We will continue to work to offset costs through efficiencies and further improvements through our innovation programme.

The operational increases included this year are small compared with changes to the HM Treasury discount rates which decrease the financial provision by more than£4.5 billion. You can find more information on this in the financial review and note 13 to the accounts.

Jeff Halliwell , Chair

4. Chief executive’s report

This year has been focused on looking forward, delivering and evolving to meet the ambitions of our new 2022 to 2025 business plan and 10 year vision. We’ve taken learning from the challenging years of the pandemic and continued to trial and embed new approaches and ways of working to make us more effective and innovative for now and the future and to help customers access our services and support more easily.

A key success has been achieving Category 2 status under 2023 revisions to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This will help us work even more closely with our emergency partners to support communities. This builds on our learning from our involvement with a wider range of major incidents over the last few years and the investment and improvements we have made to the resilience of our community and emergency response approaches.

Our emergency response work is supported and underpinned by the essential operational delivery we undertake every day. This year we have responded to 462 reported surface hazards and 220 damage claims and kept our 80 water treatment schemes and are able to treat 220 billion litres of mine water per year, to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers and the sea. We have also continued to monitor high risk areas for pollution and develop further schemes for the future. This has included expanding our focus on saline mine water recovery in England which will be a growing area of work over the years ahead. Our work on metal mine pollution clean up with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency in England and Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales in Wales continues to expand and we were delighted to see the UK government’s commitment to addressing this impact on water quality enshrined in law as part of the Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022.

We’ve continued our work for Welsh Government as part of their tips taskforce to ensure that all higher risk sites have been regularly inspected and maintenance work prioritised for action. We welcome Welsh Government’s proposals for a new regime as laid out in their Coal Tip Safety (Wales) White Paper and will continue to support them with the development of a bill on coal tip safety and its future implementation.

All of this is central to our business plan theme to deliver for the communities we serve. Our commitment to our customers is embedded in this and across each theme of our business plan as well as central to our vision. Last year we expanded the work of our customer team to centralise and improve our response to customers and to more actively identify trends and areas for improvement. For example we noticed that we were having a high level of customer enquiries related to house purchases in the West Midlands where there are many historic mine workings and entries. We have worked with estate agents, financial lenders and insurers in the area to explain our role and provide information and reassurance. Twenty-five per cent of homes and properties across Great Britain are on the coalfield. The vast majority of people will never have any problems but where they do we are here to help.

We have continued to innovate and deliver multiple outcomes throughout this year. Mine water heat continues to gain traction and we celebrate Gateshead Council’s new scheme providing heat to homes, council buildings and the international stadium and look forward to working further with them and a range of other partners to bring more schemes on line across Great Britain. Welsh Government have funded work on opportunity mapping to support this in Wales and we held a successful event at Scottish Parliament in February 2023 which we hope will lead to taking forward opportunities in Scotland very soon.

We are also pleased to have begun to sell iron ochre on a regular basis in collaboration with AB Agri who are using the product in anaerobic digestion plants. As Jeff explains this is a great example of the circular economy in action. Our digital innovation continues and we are working closely with a range of financial lenders to develop products that will help them access our data and information more effectively. Our partnership with the Geospatial Commission and Geo6 partner bodies is also continuing to be effective and increase our knowledge and reach in this area. All of this helps us to deliver on our theme to work with others to create value.

We’ve taken further steps to be more proactive in how we can enable or encourage wider social and environmental value from our work alongside economic effectiveness. We’re working with partners, local authorities and charities to be creative with land we own or restrictions we hold over land to enable beneficial use for communities and/or social or environmental purposes. We’re also using our own land and resources more effectively for multiple outcomes. For example, utilising our land at Nentsberry, North East England, to create a calaminarium nursery (grassland that develops on nutrient-poor soils with high levels of toxic heavy metals) in collaboration with Tyne Rivers Trust, supporting sensitive restoration of the area. We are also using reed bed waste on our land at Garrigill, North East England, to support carbon sequestration, nature recovery and reducing waste with the potential to roll out across our wider operational estate.

Our business plan lays out clear targets for each of our 5 themes to be achieved by April 2025 as well as underpinning work and more detailed plans that expand each approach such as our latest sustainability plan which supports our ‘ensure sustainability’ theme and shows how we will make progress towards net zero, enhance nature recovery, reduce waste and deliver more social value for the communities we serve.

For a medium sized organisation we are highly complex and deliver a very wide range of activities and outcomes, managing and reducing complex risks for the 3 governments we serve. We will continue to ensure that efficiency, value for money and multiple outcome delivery is embedded in every decision we take and look forward to discussing this as part of our arm’s length body review in 2023 to 2024.

Our digital transformation work and wider system improvements have continued over the year as part of our ‘fit for the future’ theme. For example, we have made strong progress in transferring our core systems to the cloud which will give us greater resilience and enable us to more easily implement new systems that allow us to better manage and serve our data, enable our people to collaborate more effectively, and make it easier for customers to use our services.

None of this would be possible without the great people who work at the Coal Authority and their commitment to making a difference for the communities that we serve. They have done this professionally, empathetically and well despite the financial pressures and wider global uncertainty that has impacted everyone in their personal and professional lives during the last year. I am proud and humbled to lead and support them every day.

To enable our great people, and those who will join us in the future, and to ensure that we are truly a great place to work we will continue our focus on wellbeing, inclusion and development to ensure that we can find, retain and grow great people who are able to solve complex problems and who are passionate about making a difference both today and looking forward.

Together we will make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

Lisa Pinney MBE, Chief Executive

5. Our work to enable emergency response

Following work with the Cabinet Office and our sponsoring department BEIS (now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), along with support from emergency response partners across Great Britain, we were delighted to be recognised as a Category 2 responder under revisions to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which became law in February 2023. This underlines the importance of both our direct incident response and the information and support we can provide to other emergency services, to keep them safe when working in mining areas.

The Coal Authority has been a 24/7/365 incident response organisation since our formation in 1994 and we deal directly with more than 750 public safety and subsidence incidents, hazards and wider issues each year. We have been increasingly called upon by partners to support at major events such as the 2020 Tylorstown tip slip in South Wales, the 2019 to 2020 winter floods in South Yorkshire, England and the freight train derailment adjacent to our site at Morlais, Carmarthenshire, Wales.

We also worked closely with emergency partners at major incidents relating to mining issues such as the 2021 Skewen, South Wales flood and the 2021 Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland subsidence collapse.

Now that we are a Category 2 responder, we can do this more formally and effectively which better supports emergency services and partners, improves planning and information sharing and enables a more joined up response for the communities involved.

In the lead up to becoming a Category 2 responder, we have worked closely with relevant local resilience forums across England and Wales and with the regional resilience partnerships in Scotland to strengthen links, share information and discuss risks and opportunities. We have taken part in 6 multi-agency exercises to test emergency plans including leading a significant exercise at our Wheal Jane metal mine water treatment site in Cornwall, England to test resilience following prolonged wet weather. We will continue to collaborate and provide support as needed.

Twenty-five per cent of all homes and businesses across Great Britain are on the coalfield. The vast majority of people will never experience any problems from that but for those who do we are here to help. We can be contacted 24/7/365 on 0800 288 4242.

6. Our work in Scotland

As a 24/7 emergency responder we work with the emergency services and other partners to protect life and property from the impacts of historic mining hazards In the early hours of 25 September 2021 we were notified of a serious incident at Saltcoats in Ayrshire requiring the evacuation of eight households which were subsiding. Since then we have worked closely with partners and the community to support those affected, stabilise the historic workings and enable a future use for the site.

Saltcoats sits on the coalfield and the area was mined from the 1600s though to the end of the 19th century. Although there were no specific mine workings shown on our records in this immediate area we quickly established that the collapse was due to unrecorded mine entries which had been found elsewhere in the area. We attended site and supported the emergency services and North Ayrshire Council on the night of the 25 September 2021 and through the initial phase of the incident and then took responsibility for the site, the homeowners impacted and the wider community engagement, working closely with the council and other partners throughout.

We supported the homeowners affected, arranging temporary accommodation and then arranging to buy their homes. Once precious belongings were removed we moved quickly to demolish the properties to prevent further collapse and risk to public safety. We kept the wider community informed and worked with nearby homeowners who had concerns about the safety of their own homes. This included regular updates, engineering home inspections, installing monitoring equipment to measure for any movement or subsidence and providing information and support for conversations with mortgage providers and insurers.

Over the last year we have continued this support and taken effective action at the site. Within a year of the incident taking place we had purchased each of the 8 properties affected, enabling those families to move forwards with their lives.

Following early ground investigations to confirm that unrecorded workings were the cause and to map their extent, we filled the workings with a specialist grout material which fills and stabilises the collapsed ground. We installed 24 rods with monitors and 63 monitoring pins on the site to ensure that any movement is detected. There has been no movement since the works took place in September 2022. We will continue to monitor the site for two years and then it will be released for use. We are liaising with North Ayrshire Council and the community to discuss the best future use for the site.

We continue to keep the local community updated and are grateful for their understanding and cooperation during our works. We minimised heavy machinery, working hours and noise impacts as much as possible and recognise that this can still be disruptive. We have also kept the local MSP, Scottish Government and the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland updated about the incident and subsequent remediation work.

Twenty-five per cent of homes and properties across Great Britain are on the coalfield. The majority of homeowners will never have any problems but where they do we are here to help and can be contacted 24/7 on 0800 288 4242.

This incident is a clear example of the work we do as an emergency responder, working with Regional Resilience Partnership colleagues across the coalfield areas of Scotland. We work together to protect life, drinking water and the environment from mining hazards and to support those affected by such incidents.

Our year in Scotland:

• we carried out 712 mine entry inspections
• we determined 72 hazard and subsidence occurrences
• we delivered 56,989 mining reports
• we provided 1,353 planning consultation responses
• we treated 29 billion litres of water
• we prevented 708 tonnes of iron solids from entering water courses

7. Our performance

We are one year through our current 3 year business plan and we’re making clear progress against our mission of making a better future for people and the environment in mining areas.

Our plan is set against our 10 year vision, underpinned by our values and focused on delivering for the communities we serve. The following sections show the progress we have made in 2022 to 2023.

We are using this scorecard to measure and report our progress between 2022 to 2025.

7.1 Deliver for the communities we serve

Scorecard outcome

We improve our frontline delivery services for our customers so that we deliver more outcomes and are easier to do business with.

In 2022 to 2023 we:

• delivered our biggest environment programme to date. We treated less waste overall because of drier weather conditions but created the capacity to treat an additional 3 billion litres of water per year (an increase from 217 to 220 billion litres of water per year) which is a true reflection of our outcome and will be measured alongside the original target in future reports
• resolved 58% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months and we continue to make progress and are on track to meet our 2025 target
• have enabled 160,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development for both environmental projects and community use through our planning and permitting services and we are on track to meet our 2025 target
• have increased our scores by 10% against the ServiceMark accreditation measures during the last 12 months and we are continuing to build on our customer service standards and are on track to meet our 2025 target

By April 2025 we:

• will treat an additional 13 billion litres per year of mine water to prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers or the sea by 2025; this is an increase of over 10% on current volumes (128 billion litres/year) which is a true reflection of our outcome and will be measured alongside the original target in future reports - we continue to deliver our capital programme and are on track to deliver a significant increase in our capacity to treat mine water by 2025
• will resolve 90% of subsidence hazards and claims within 12 months
• will use our information, services and estate to enable 300,000 hectares of regeneration and safe development for local communities in the former coalfields
• will achieve ServiceMark accreditation for our service standards from the Institute of Customer Service

The Coal Authority is a practical operational organisation, which delivers a number of core, statutory duties across Great Britain to help keep people, drinking water and the environment safe from the impacts of our mining legacy. This includes a 24/7 incident response capacity. We are committed to doing this in a customer and community focused way.

We act with integrity, do what we say we will and listen and learn so that we can continually improve. Working with and through other partners we provide a joined up response to maximise the outcome that can be delivered. This helps us to deliver on our mission to make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas. During 2023 to 2024 we will update and republish our customer standards and replace our customer strategy with a new customer plan.

7.2 Ensure sustainability

Scorecard outcome

Make further clear progress on our journey to achieve net zero carbon by 2030 and to deliver wider environmental and social aspects of sustainability.

In 2022 to 2023 we:

• have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, operations and travel by 34% against our baseline and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• better understand social and environmental value and have delivered a number of practical examples in our communities, see our case study on “Our work to enable social and environmental value” and work is underway to define our integrated reporting framework and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• have undertaken an initial review and work continues to inform our climate change plan - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025
• work is underway and we will publish our nature recovery plan in 2023 to 2024 - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025

By April 2025 we:

• will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, operations and travel by 65% from our 2017 to 2018 baseline
• will implement integrated reporting that uses evidence based and measured targets to show our commitment and progress on our sustainability goals
• will understand and recognise the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on our estate and operations with a clearly defined adaptation plan
• will have a nature recovery plan and will demonstrate how our estate and operations are being optimised for nature’s recovery

We’re committed to becoming a more sustainable organisation, and want to use our work to help deliver positive change in the communities we support. We have published our new sustainability plan which includes real consideration of environmental and social sustainability and factoring this thinking into our decision making and reporting.

We continue taking action to decarbonise our activities and maximise carbon sequestration at our sites. We are also taking action to support resilient nature and wildlife by managing our sites and estate in the best way possible. We published our sustainability plan in March 2023.

7.3 Work with others to create value

Scorecard outcome

We will generate more value and deliver wider environmental and social benefit from our assets, services and work.

In 2022 to 2023 we:

• enabled one large operational mine water heat scheme at Gateshead, North East England and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• reused or recycled 89% of our waste iron solids and continue to collect data on iron ochre accumulation in our treatment processes
• increased our service delivery to partners by 20% from our 2021 to 2022 baseline and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• are working with the lending industry to develop new products to support faster decisions and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target

By April 2025 we will:

• influence and enable 4 large operational mine water heat schemes across Great Britain
• reuse or recycle 95% of the iron ochre and iron solids generated from our mine water treatment schemes to prevent disposal in landfill
• increase our service delivery to partners by 30% from our 2021 to 2022 baseline of £2.49 million/year
• assist the lending industry in making faster decisions for home buyers on the coalfields

Value creation (financial, environmental and social) is key to our thinking at the Coal Authority and we are constantly looking for new innovation and efficiency to deliver better outcomes, new opportunities and savings for the taxpayer.

We’re passionate about past mining communities on the coalfield and beyond and use our information, skills and expertise to give confidence to those who live and work in these areas and to enable opportunity and benefit where possible from our mining legacy. During 2023 to 2024 we will publish our mine heat opportunities and by-products opportunities frameworks.

7.4 Create a great place to work

Scorecard outcome

We will be an employer of choice where our people feel they can belong. We’ll have an inclusive culture with a strong focus on wellbeing, learning and development. We take pride in delivering important work for the communities we serve and live our values.

In 2022 to 2023 we:

• have made good progress in increasing the diversity of our workforce with increases in the number of female, ethnically diverse, LGBTQ+ and disabled colleagues - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025
• have been speaking with partners and looking at best practice in this area - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025
• achieved a strong 4 star rating in the British Safety Council 5 Star Health, Safety and Wellbeing Audit - we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• achieved a 66% employee engagement score in our 2022 survey - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025

By April 2025 we will:

• make demonstrable progress towards our workforce being more reflective of the diversity of the communities we serve across Great Britain
• support levelling up by taking action to improve social mobility and providing apprenticeships for individuals who live on the coalfield and have a family connection to mining
• achieve a 5 star rating in the British Safety Council 5 Star Health, Safety and Wellbeing Audit
• increase our employee survey engagement score by 10% against the 2019 benchmark of 67%

Great people are at the heart of what we do and we can only deliver the important work we do to keep people safe, protect the environment and maximise opportunity if we can attract, recruit and retain them.

To do that we have to be a truly ‘great place to work’ that attracts diverse talent across all parts of Great Britain and helps them to feel valued and respected with the opportunity to grow and develop. We want to be an employer of choice that is vibrant, dynamic and modern and promotes an inclusive, wellbeing centred culture underpinned by our values. We published our health, safety and wellbeing plan in August 2022 and our anti-racism plan in July 2022. We continue to deliver against our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy 2021 to 2024.

7.5 Make us fit for the future

Scorecard outcome

We will develop modern, resilient systems and processes that are fit for the future, support our people and make it easier for our customers and partners to do business with us.

In 2022 to 2023 we:

• updated 35% of our strategic IT systems to run them in the cloud and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• achieved 78% of our services being digital by default, which equates to 99% of our transactions and we are prioritising cost effective options for improvement in our services and information to take us towards 100% digital by default; no new transactional systems were built in year and we have more to do to meet this target in 2025
• completed the delivery of a core suite of Microsoft 365 products which will enable improved collaboration within the organisation and for our partners and we are on track to deliver our 2025 target
• made good progress in developing a data and information plan to publish in 2023 to 2024, this will show how we’ll maximise the future use of the data and information we hold and make it findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable - we have more to do to meet this target in 2025

By April 2025 we will:

• update 100% of our strategic IT systems and run them in the cloud
• make our digital services and information more accessible, relevant and with increased self-serve options; 100% of services will be digital by default and 100% of our new transactional systems will follow GOV.UK service and design standards
• make progress on implementing systems that allow simpler, improved collaboration within the organisation and with partners
• make progress in improving our findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) data self-assessment ratings

We’ve set out a high level of ambition through our vision and our 3 year business plan. We have to enable these ambitions through effective and customer focused systems and approaches which support us to provide the core services that keep people safe, the opportunities we have to create value and the need to deliver environmental and social sustainability.

We will design and drive a digitally enabled programme from the perspective of our people and our customers to support a ‘One Coal Authority’ culture and make us easy to do business with. During 2023 to 2024 we will publish our data and information plan.

8. Our work to enable social and environmental value

During 2022 to 2023 we worked with Defra, the Environment Agency, Cumbria County Council^{[footnote 2]} and the Tyne Rivers Trust to maximise the potential of our new site at Nentsberry in Cumbria, England for social and environmental value for the local community and catchment.

We bought the 10 acre field as part of our work with Defra and the Environment Agency on the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme to reduce pollution from metal mines across England and help deliver the ambitions of the Environment Act 2021. We needed it to create a check weir in the river and build a pumping station out of local stone to transport mine water from Haggs adit to our new mine water treatment scheme at Nent Haggs, further along the catchment.

During discussions with Cumbria County Council it became clear that the A689 road adjacent to the field suffered from surface water flooding and ice, causing nuisance and risk to the local community. We were able to design a solution using our land to better manage the water using natural flood management approaches.

We are working with Tyne Rivers Trust and local volunteers to enhance habitat creation at the site. This includes a pond, wetland scrapes, tree and shrub planting, and species rich grassland. We are also establishing a calaminarium nursery using metal rich substrates arising from pollution remediation work in the adjacent river Nent and river West Allen at Carrshield, within the Tyne catchment. Calaminarium species are metal tolerant plants and many are rare at a global scale. It is important for our metal mine remediation programme that in preventing water pollution we not only maintain existing calaminarian plant communities but also establish new areas within these restoration schemes. Our Nentsberry nursery will enable calaminarium species to be established, grown and then planted into diffuse restoration projects across the Tyne and Wear catchments. This will complement work being done by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at their Bowlees Visitor Centre in Teesdale.

We’ve designed the site to encourage access for the local community and have created a permissive footpath across the site which links up with other public rights of way in the local area.

9. Financial review

We’ve delivered strongly over the year. Our incident response and public safety work has continued to keep people safe and provide peace of mind, and ongoing investment in our mine water schemes will enable us to treat mine water and protect the environment into the future.

We’ve continued to grow our advisory services income as we support our partners to understand and manage their risks and provide information and services to help people make informed decisions.

We have worked closely with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formerly Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), to communicate the risks and sensitivities behind our funding requirements and have delivered in line with our forecasts. Grant in aid received from BEIS and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in the year was £58.0 million (2021 to 2022: £53.2 million) reflecting an increase in the net cost of our operations. This is explained and illustrated on the graphic opposite (note that a significant proportion of this cost was provided for in previous years as explained at note 13 of the financial statements and is not charged directly to the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure in the year).

Working with our partners we delivered our largest ever annual capital programme to protect watercourses, drinking water aquifers and prevent flooding. Operating expenditure on our schemes has significantly increased, driven primarily by inflation in power and chemical costs. Our ongoing programmes will minimise the future cost of running these schemes by employing innovative uses for our by-products and by generating other operational efficiencies and it is pleasing that we made our first delivery towards the end of the financial year of our ochre by-product to be used in anaerobic digestion. This initiative is expected to reduce our net cost by £1.0 million over the next 5 years.

Our expenditure on public safety is reactive and can vary from year to year. 2022 to 2023 expenditure reduced compared to previous years reflecting the work we undertook during 2021 to 2022 to resolve a number of significant claims and incidents including our support of the emergency response at Saltcoats, North Ayrshire and ongoing work to remediate mining features at Skewewn, South Wales. The development cost shown in the figure above includes ongoing expenditure at the former colliery site at Clipstone, Nottinghamshire, England, to make the mining features safe and allow development of the site so that it can be put into beneficial use for the community.

Mining reports income of £7.0 million reflects a £1.4 million reduction compared to the prior year, reflecting a slow-down in numbers of property transactions, as well as the success of our policy to make our data available, opening up the market from a previous near monopoly position. Our advisory and technical services work generated income of £6.8 million (2021-22: £6.4 million) reflecting our continued success in delivering with other government organisations. This includes mine water scheme delivery for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in England (Defra) and Natural Resources Wales, and supporting Welsh Government with the safe management of tips.

9.1 Financial statements

Our accounts are dominated by the provisions balance of £2,211.0 million. The rationale and methodology for calculating this are shown at note 13 to the financial statements.

As in previous years and in line with our accounting policy, this provision for resolving the impacts of past coal mining was reviewed at the end of the 2022 to 2023 financial year. This balance has reduced by £3,407.0 million (2021- 22: increase of £3,102.0 million). In line with accounting practice we adjust our cash flows to reflect the time value of money based on assumptions and rates provided by HM Treasury. This year’s change in rates has led to a reduction of £4,467.0 million (2021-22: increase of £2,759.0 million).

Our underlying cash flows, on which the provision balance is calculated, have been updated based on latest information and have increased by £516 million to £3,350 million. This recognises significant increases as a result of high rates of inflation, especially in power and chemical costs affecting mine water schemes, and reflects the trend over recent years of managing an increasing number of complex public safety incidents.

9.2 Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure

Comprehensive net income for the year to 31 March 2023 was £3,347.5 million as compared to comprehensive net expenditure of £3,149.2 million in 2021-22. The large difference between the 2 years is driven by the provisions movements outlined above. Excluding these provisions movements, comprehensive net expenditure for the year was £34.4 million (2021- 22: £18.9 million), an increase of £15.5 million.

9.3 How we used our money in 2022 to 2023

Figures for years 2022 to 2023 and 2021 to 2022 are shown.

Our income from	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022
Mining reports	£7.0m	£8.4m
Advisory and technical services	£6.8m	£6.4m
By-products and other commercial innovation	£0.1m	£0.0m
Licensing and permissions indemnities	£0.8m	£0.8m
Property related	£2.0m	£2.9m
Working capital movement	£0.0m	£2.4m
Grant in aid (BEIS)	£58.0m	£53.2m
Total	£76.3m	£75.6m

Our spend on	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022
Operations: Public safety	£15.9m	£21.1m
Operations: Mine water treatment schemes	£20.0m	£16.9m
Operations: Subsidence pumping stations	£1.6m	£1.4m
Development: Planning, licensing, permissions and property	£4.2m	£3.2m
Data and information	£4.3m	£3.9m
Commercial	£8.7m	£9.4m
Innovation	£2.0m	£0.8m
Mine water treatment schemes (Capital)	£16.6m	£15.6m
Subsidence pumping stations (Capital)	£1.2m	£0.5m
Other (Capital)	£1.8m	£1.9m
Total	£76.3m	£75.6m

Income of £18.3 million per the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure is the total of the income figures above excluding grant in aid and working capital movement.

9.4 Total operating income

Total operating income, which excludes grant in aid, was £18.3 million (2021-22: £20.0 million) reflecting our ongoing strategy to work collaboratively with government organisations to support them in managing their risks, whilst promoting competition in the mining reports market and enabling others to use our information to make informed decisions.

A 14% year-on-year reduction to the size of the market, due to the effect of the prevailing economic conditions on the number of property transactions, combined with the modest loss of market share during the year (a 2% reduction to 42%), has resulted in the reduction to mining reports income. Mining reports revenue has reduced by £1.4 million to £7.0 million, whilst data licensing and mining information revenue increased by £0.1 million to £1.6 million.

Our advisory and technical services income has risen, by £0.4 million, to £6.8 million. This is driven mainly through expanded metal mine programmes that we deliver for the Defra and Natural Resources Wales.

The other change in our income from 2021-22 relates to the sale of properties with a reduction of £1.0 million profit on disposal of investment properties, see note 4.2 to the financial statements. This income can be unpredictable as its timing is largely outside of our control

Minor changes in by-products and other product and services income account for the remaining increase of £0.2m.

9.5 Expenditure

Staff costs of £19.9 million showed an increase of £2.1 million compared to the previous year. Pay award, at 3% in line with civil service pay remit guidance, accounts for £0.5 million.

The remainder of the increase is driven by headcount in line with our plans to deliver increased front line services to the communities we serve. This includes delivering our largest ever mine water scheme capital programme to protect the environment, providing more advice and technical services to our customers, and to enable the organisation to embed an even more resilient and effective emergency response capability as we continue to deal with an increasing number of complex incidents

Purchase of goods and services (not including our front line costs previously provided) increased by £1.6 million to £10.7 million. The largest constituent part of this is £0.7 million provided for expected credit losses. Other drivers include an increase in digital costs over the year as we continue to make good progress on our project to transition to cloud hosting of our systems to improve our resilience and efficiency; and on-going work on our programme of increased sustainability, including assessment of renewable energy options to reduce future cost

Depreciation, revaluation and impairment charges increased by £10.2 million to £21.3 million, reflecting an increase of investment through our mine water treatment scheme programme and the completion of schemes, whereby under our accounting policy we immediately impair our schemes to nil net book value when they become operational

More information is available in notes 3 and 4 to the financial statements.

9.6 Statement of Financial Position

Net liabilities at £2,201.9 million reduced by £3,405.5 million (2021 to 2022: £5,607.4 million).

Key factors were:

• provisions against future liabilities reduced by £3,407.0 million as a result of the review in provisions outlined above. Further information is available at note 13 to the financial statements
• the reduction in total non-current assets is predominantly driven by the timing of impairment of mine water schemes (held in property, plant and equipment) once construction has been completed and they become operational, as outlined above
• trade receivables have reduced by £0.7million to £4.0 million, primarily as a result of the timing of issuing invoices and the receipt of payments from Welsh Government in relation to tip management services, with the increase in accrued income being broadly off-set by a specific amount assessed as unrecoverable within expected credit losses
• cash and cash equivalents stand at £13.2 million (2021 to 2022: £14.3 million): see the section below on cash flow for details on movements
• trade and other payables have seen a reduction of £2.9 million, with the main driver being a reduction to accruals relating to timing of public safety and mine water schemes expenditure

9.7 Cash flow

There was a net reduction in cash during the year of £1.1 million.

Constituent parts of this movement were:

• the receipt of £58.0 million grant in aid from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (2021 t0 2022: £53.2 million); the increase, which is the major movement in our cash balance year on year, is drawdown from the department to cover working capital relating to 2 main areas: settling public safety incidents and our capital programmes, in line with the commentary on accruals above
• a net cash outflow from operating activities of £39.9 million (2021 to 2022: £35.7 million); we have spent more this year on our operations, particularly; as a result of significant inflationary cost pressures in relation to the operation of our mine water schemes; on the emergency response to a burning tip at Beever Lane, Barnsley; ongoing work to remediate the mining features at Skewen, South Wales; as well as a number of other significant public safety claims and incidents
• a net cash outflow from investing activities of £18.7 million (2021 to 2022: £13.5 million); this relates to the purchase of property, plant and equipment as part of our ongoing programme to develop, build and maintain mine water schemes and subsidence pumping stations, and in the ongoing investment in our information technology and systems, as well as a reduction of £1.4 million of income (2021-22: £3.0 million) from the sale of properties owned or previously owned
• at 31 March 2023 we held £13.2 million cash (2022: £14.3 million); this includes £1.4 million (2022: £1.4 million) of ring fenced funds in respect of security called in from mining operators that have been liquidated, and the movement in called in security is used to discharge these industry claim liabilities as part of our operating activities

9.8 Going concern

To the extent that they are not met from our other sources of income, our liabilities may only be met by future grants or grants in aid from our sponsor department, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. This is because, under the normal conventions applying to parliamentary control over income and expenditure, such grants may not be issued in advance of need.

Paragraph 14(1) of schedule 1 to the Coal Industry Act 1994, states: “The Secretary of State shall, in respect of each accounting year, pay to the Coal Authority such amount as he may determine to be the amount required by the Coal Authority for the carrying out during that year of its functions under this Act.”

On that basis, the board has a reasonable expectation that we’ll continue to receive funding so as to be able to meet our liabilities. We’ve therefore prepared our accounts on a going concern basis.

10. Our work in England

We continually look to innovate and improve our mine water treatment schemes to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency and look for opportunities to refine chemical or power use to reduce their carbon and sustainability impacts and maximise the environmental outcomes from each site.

Our mine water treatment schemes are essential to protect drinking water, rivers and the sea from pollution from historic mine water. We have the capacity to treat more than 128 billion litres of water across our 76 schemes and are constantly monitoring water quality, prioritising and designing and building new schemes to address future risks.

We do this for the coalfield areas and, in England and Wales, for metal mines. In England this work is funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as part of the water and abandoned metal mines programme which now has legally binding targets set under the Environment Act 2021.

The Wheal Jane scheme in Cornwall was originally built by the Environment Agency in 2000 following a significant pollution incident affecting more than 10km of the River Carnon and the wider Fal Estuary in 1992. In 2011 we took responsibility for the ownership and management of the scheme.

Wheal Jane treats 5.6 billion litres of mine water each year, removing arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury and zinc before discharging clean water to the River Carnon catchment. It was featured on Countryfile in February 2023 and you can find out more by scanning the QR code above.

During 2022 to 2023 we have invested further at Wheal Jane to improve its efficiency and resilience for the long term. This included lime system upgrades, replacement of the wash water pipeline and pumps, replacement of the compressor, additional fire protection measures and further works to upgrade an additional pumping location in the event of extreme weather.

We’ve worked with our contractors JF Hunt, who manage the operation of the site, in assessing 9 years of performance data from the site and to identify opportunities through artificial intelligence to reduce chemical dosing and run the plant even more effectively in the future. We will take the learning from this and use it to inform the management of our other sites in the years ahead.

Our year in England:

• we carried out 8,631 mine entry inspections
• we delivered 89,276 mining reports
• we determined 535 hazard and subsidence occurrences
• we provided 7,516 planning consultation responses
• we treated 80 billion litres of water
• we prevented 2,723 tonnes of iron solids from entering water courses

11. Health, safety and wellbeing

We’ve launched our health, safety and wellbeing plan 2022 to 2025 with a focus on behavioural as well as procedural safety and increased recognition of our work to support the mental health and wellbeing of our people.

Our people survey showed that 93% of our people believe that health and safety is a priority for the Coal Authority, 88% are confident that action would be taken if they reported a health or safety concern and 80% believe that the people in their team genuinely care about their wellbeing.

We’ve made sustained progress against each of the actions in our health, safety and wellbeing plan: 2022 to 20251 including the development and launch of a new online health, safety and wellbeing management system which enables us to improve our use of data, take more timely, informed action to further reduce risk and has simplified reporting for our people, partners and supply chain.

We worked with the Health and Safety Executive Mines Inspectorate to develop new procedures if we need to re-enter abandoned mines to manage safety or pollution and provided refresher training to all those involved with work under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

We benchmarked our approach using the British Safety Council 5 Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit in February 2023. We achieved 90.7% which is a high 4 star result. Feedback noted ‘good evidence of leadership at every level of management, with a significant emphasis on safety and wellbeing’ as well as ‘a positive relationship between the Coal Authority and its main contractors’. We will use the learning from the audit, alongside the feedback from our people survey, to inform the continued delivery of our health, safety and wellbeing plan and performance in 2023 to 2024.

We recognised that our people have continued to be subjected to external pressures following the pandemic including inflation, financial pressures and wider global uncertainty. We’ve increased awareness of the support available to people including our employee assistance scheme, employee health checks, mental health awareness training and support from mental health first aiders.

We talk about this regularly at colleague engagement calls and run regular campaigns providing information and guidance on a range of health and wellbeing related issues. Our staff engagement group, safety, health, environment and wellbeing group and colleague networks are important engagement opportunities and allow timely action or feedback to be given to any questions, concerns or opportunities raised.

Proactive measure	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022
health, safety and wellbeing observations – unsafe acts, staff and contractors	1,962	2,407
health, safety and wellbeing observations – good practice examples, staff and contractors	574	281
health, safety and wellbeing inspections, staff	322	218

Reactive measure	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022
Accidents – no time lost, staff and contractors	11	7
Accidents – lost time, staff	1	1
Incidents – Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations, staff and contractors	2	1

Our 2022 to 2023 statistics show our new approaches bedding in. We have seen fewer unsafe act reports but an increase in good practice examples reported and an increase in total reports overall. We have also seen an overall increase in colleague HSW inspections which is broadly in line with our growth as an organisation as we increase the services we deliver for others.

We are not complacent and have been closely monitoring, investigating, learning from and acting on the small increase in accidents in year. Two of these were RIDDOR reportable and were a fracture sustained following a slip on site and a foot injury to a contractor while using a mower. These were fully investigated, the root cause identified and action taken and shared with our people and supply chain partners to prevent a recurrence.

12. Our work in Wales

Working with partners, including Neath Port Talbot Council, Natural Resources Wales and the local community we designed and built a mine water management system for the village of Skewen in South Wales to reduce the risk of future flooding from mine workings following extreme weather.

On 21 January 2021 following months of wet weather and the devastating impacts of Storm Christoph across Wales, a flooding event occurred in the village of Skewen, in the borough of Neath Port Talbot, South Wales. The flooding in the village was a result of an outburst of water from below ground which caused a collapse in a residential road. This event caused the temporary evacuation of more than 100 homes and led to the flooding of 78 properties. The event had a significant impact on the community and its residents and we, alongside a range of emergency partners and the local authority, worked to support them as they recovered from this tragic event.

Mine workings in the area date back to the early 1800s and are significant across the area. To give residents peace of mind and to reduce the risk of such an event happening again in the future we designed and built a mine water management scheme which uses a combination of upstream boreholes to monitor water levels and a modern water management system to carry the water away from the village. The system is deliberately oversized to ensure that it can handle future extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change.

Work began in 2021 and continued through 2022 to 2023 as we undertook phase 2 of the scheme, replacing the use of an existing drainage channel with limited capacity with a new, purpose built and oversized pipeline for the bottom end of the scheme. We have worked with the community as we have done this to minimise road closures and disruption from the work as much as possible.

The scheme includes real-time, remote telemetry monitoring to ensure that water levels in the mine are monitored 24/7/365 with automatic alarms alerting us to any levels above the normal range.

Our year in Wales:

• we carried out 1,133 mine entry inspections
• we determined 163 hazard and subsidence occurrences
• we delivered 11,049 mining reports
• we treated 12 billion litres of water
• we provided 1,367 planning consultation responses
• we prevented 325 tonnes of iron solids from entering water courses

13. Our people

We continued to innovate and evolve to deliver against the ambitions of our new 2022 to 2025 business plan and 10 year vision. We have invested in learning and development and modernised our recruitment approaches to ensure that we can recruit, retain and grow our great people to deliver great customer service and continue to solve the complex challenges that we face as an emergency response organisation on the coalfield.

A key theme of our business plan is ‘create a great place to work’ and this informs our approach to supporting and developing our people. We want to be an employer of choice that is vibrant, dynamic and modern and promotes an inclusive, wellbeing-centred culture underpinned by our values.

This year we, alongside many other organisations, have seen staff turnover increase and faced significant competition for talent. We have approached this in several ways, improving our recruitment reach and processes, investing in the development of our people and increasing the visibility of our values-led approach and the ability that colleagues make for society through our work.

Process improvements to recruitment have reduced our ‘time to hire’ by 24 days.

We’ve continued to deliver the actions in our equality, diversity and inclusion plan and anti-racism plan to help us recruit and retain diverse colleagues and published our ‘pay gap’ report and action plan.

Our gender pay gap for 20223 is a mean of 15.97% (down 12.31% since 2018) and a median of 17.43% (down 14.20% since 2018). We are pleased with progress but committed to doing more to reduce this. Our ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation pay gap calculations remain impacted by low representation in our organisation and by low self-disclosure rates, which we continue to work on, but we believe that the information is useful and that greater transparency will help inform our continued progress.

Social mobility continues to be important to us and we remain a significant employer across coalfield areas with 85% of colleagues who work for us living on the coalfield.

We’ve continued to invest in leadership and learning from key technical skills development to important leadership and management skills. We’ve continued to work to transfer knowledge from those with first-hand experience of mining industries to other colleagues and enabled groups (such as our technical advisory group) to collaborate, coach and learn from each other and inform key decisions and policy across the organisation. This has been underpinned by key digital improvements over the year which make online collaboration easier – essential for effective hybrid working.

We’ve recognised the impact of inflation and cost of living impacts on our people. We made an average 3% pay award, in line with the guidance of our sponsoring department (the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), which was paid during December 2022. Alongside this we have looked across our colleague policies and at our range of benefits to ensure that we provide as much support as possible. For example during 2022 we launched our new family friendly people policies which offer “best in public sector class” benefits across a range of policies from parental leave to flexible working and adoption, surrogacy and assisted conception. We also launched our employee benefits platform operated by Edenred which gives access to the ‘mylifestyle’ online platform where colleagues can access a range of benefits including discounts on everything from regular food shopping, technology, health care, holidays and gyms.

We have continued to support colleagues’ wellbeing and health for example through continuing to provide mental health awareness training for colleagues and the provision of mental health first aiders. Our wellbeing group which originally set up as a forum for mental health first aiders has evolved into a group of colleagues from across the organisation who are committed to supporting the continual improvement of our health and wellbeing management. It works as part of our wider equality, diversity and inclusion groups and networks to ensure we have an integrated approach.

In October 2022 we undertook our first people survey since 2019, recognising that a huge amount had changed in that time including the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid ways of working and significant growth in the organisation as we have taken on new responsibilities and increased our service provision. 82% of colleagues took part and our overall engagement score remained consistent at 66% (67% in 2019). 21 measures improved significantly since 2019 including many which show a strong culture and reflect how we work together to create a great place to work for everyone. 10 measures notably deteriorated with most of these related to pay. We’ll be working with colleagues across the organisation during 2023 to 2024 to agree priority areas and key actions to ensure that together we can create a truly great place to work.

We’ve continued to raise up and listen to voices across the organisation; including our staff engagement group and colleagues from our inclusion and wellbeing networks. In 2023 each of our board committees will be partnered with a staff group and hear directly from them on a regular basis to grow this approach further.

Our hybrid working framework, designed with fairness and transparency at the centre, has continued to work well during the year. We’ve continued to listen, reflect and act on feedback from colleagues to improve our approach and to learn from partner organisations approaches. We recognise that strong engagement plays an important role and have reshaped our teams to ensure that colleague engagement is a strong focus and that key engagement meetings and channels are clearly signposted. We’ve also discussed the importance of personal responsibility to keep yourself engaged and informed when working in a hybrid way. We have continued to grow external awareness of our work to help customers stay informed and to make it easier to attract great people to work with us. We are proud of the work our people deliver which makes such a difference to the communities we serve and will continue to look for opportunities to share this.

14. Strategic risks

Risks	Updates and mitigation	Relative rating
Public safety risk A significant hazard caused by past coal mining or incident at a Coal Authority legacy site causes serious injury or fatality.	We have well-established processes to manage our risks including proactive inspection and communication programmes and a 24/7 triaged response line. We adopt a proportionate response to manage this risk but it cannot be eliminated.	High - stable
Changing climate and extreme weather events We are unable to adequately understand, adapt to and mitigate the effects of the changing climate and extreme weather events, impacting our assets and ability to deliver our remit.	Our significant capital build and refurbishment programmes are designed to ensure that our schemes mitigate and prevent pollution and flooding. We are continuing to develop our understanding of the impact of climate change adaptation and extreme weather events on our estate and operations, and this will help to shape our future programmes.	High - increasing
Saline mine water from inland coalfields Due to the saline nature and location of mine water within the central coalfields, potential solutions may be complex and require significant additional funding.	Analysis of our extensive monitoring of England’s inland coalfields demonstrates that the chemistry of the mine water is extremely challenging and will require additional treatment to that normally undertaken. Work is underway to generate and evaluate options for treatment.	High - increasing
Supply chain An increasingly restricted and competitive labour market, inflation and other factors increases pressure on our supply chain leading to a lack of, or increased costs to, materials and contractors required to deliver our strategic objective	We have good visibility of pipeline work and engage early with our suppliers. We continue to monitor and work with stakeholders to maximise the attractiveness of our opportunities and the resilience of supply chains where possible. We continue to work closely with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to communicate and manage cost and funding pressures.	High - stable
Incidents The scale or concurrency of critical/major incidents impact on the ability of the Coal Authority to achieve its strategic objectives.	During 2022 to 2023 we have been granted Category 2 responder status, which recognises the Coal Authority as a significant organisation in the response to emergencies and incidents that happen on the coalfield. We proactively raise awareness of historic mining hazards with partner organisations including through our mine safe programme	High - stable
Recruitment and retention Economic pressure and uncertainty leads to difficulty recruiting and retaining sufficient capability to deliver our strategic objectives and leads to increased costs and delays to delivery.	We actively monitor and manage our turnover through early interventions and regular engagement with colleagues. We have developed and implemented a refreshed recruitment and talent plan and embedded a new applicant tracking system. Also refer to supply chain risk mitigation above.	High - decreasing
Cybersecurity failure World political climate, growing digital dependency, increasingly sophisticated and innovative means of attack leads to a cybersecurity failure resulting in financial or data loss, disruption to service or damage to reputation.	We continue to monitor the global risk landscape and continually improve our technical controls. We understand that a positive cybersecurity culture is key in maintaining an effective defence and we continue to promote training and to raise awareness with all colleagues.	Medium - decreasing
Government policy Policy and legislation changes in areas relevant to our work, including increasing differences in priorities across the 3 nations caused by further devolution, cause inefficiency, legal challenge, uncertainty or reputational impacts.	We continue to work with the 3 nations in delivering our work to maximise the delivery of UK and national outcomes.	Medium - stable
Public and partner awareness Ineffective engagement and communication leads to public and stakeholders not having a clear understanding of our remit and activities resulting in lost opportunities and adverse impacts on outcomes.	We continue to improve our stakeholder engagement to local resilience forums and regional resilience partnerships covering the coalfield. We are further strengthening our stakeholder engagement through the implementation of a new stakeholder engagement process beginning with a number of pilot projects during 2023 to 2024. Also refer to incidents risk mitigation above.	Medium - stable
Data/information Due to lack of resource or prioritisation of investment, we do not evolve our authoritative data quickly enough, leading to an inability to deliver against our strategic objectives and create value.	We have built a “fit for the future” programme structure which will be embedded during 2023 to 2024. We remain on track to publish a detailed data and information plan in 2023 to 2024.	Medium - stable
Health, safety and wellbeing We fail to identify and properly manage health and safety risks resulting in fatality, injury, ill health or poor wellbeing to anyone affected by our activities and/or assets.	We continue to prioritise our people’s safety and wellbeing and have robust and proactive processes and procedures to manage our health, safety and wellbeing risks. We adopt a proportionate response to manage this risk but it cannot be eliminated.	Medium - stable
Innovation Due to funding constraints and the inherent risk in innovation, progress to develop new technology, processes and products may take longer than planned, leading to delay in cost savings and value creation.	We have continued to identify innovative uses for our by-products and generate operational efficiencies including the use of our ochre in anaerobic digestion. We work with partners to progress mine water energy opportunities and collaborate with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, British Geological Survey and other organisations to maximise our success.	Medium - decreasing

15. Our work to enable the circular economy

Working with a commercial partner in the agri-food sector we have developed a beneficial use for our iron ochre in anaerobic digestion which diverts it from landfill and replaces the use of a manufactured additive produced abroad. This is a great example of the circular economy in action and something we will build on in the years ahead as part of our commitment to reuse or recycle 95% of ochre and iron solids produced from our mine water treatment schemes.

Iron ochre is a natural by-product generated by our mine water treatment schemes as they work to remove metals and other contaminants from mine water and prevent pollution of drinking water, rivers and the sea. Previously ochre was treated as a waste and sent to landfill. Over the past few years we have been innovating and working with partners to develop alternative uses for this material as part of our commitment to sustainability.

We’ve worked on a range of practical uses including using the ochre to remediate arsenic contamination in land which is very effective. In 2020 we won 2 UK Brownfield Awards for our work on this with the Mersey Gateway project. Ochre is really effective for land remediation but the need for it is relatively unpredictable. We’ve continued to look for other uses which would be more consistent in the volumes needed.

This included working with AB Agri, a supplier to the agri-food sector, to undertake trials of ochre in anaerobic digestion plants. Anaerobic digestion plants previously used a manufactured iron based additive to capture hydrogen sulphide which reduces the risk of odour from the process and reduce maintenance to the plants. We found that our ochre, dried to 50% moisture content, was suitable to replace the manufactured product.

Since February 2023 AB Agri have been using our ochre in their own anaerobic digestion plants and promoting a co-branded Great Britain ochre product to other operators in the anaerobic digestion sector.

This generates income for the Coal Authority and saves previous landfill costs which reduce our overall costs to the taxpayer. Using a Great British by-product rather than importing a manufactured product from overseas saves cost and carbon for the anaerobic digestion sector and provides local economic opportunity here in the UK. This delivers on our sustainability commitments and our focus on providing social and environmental value, alongside value for the taxpayer, from our work.

16. Sustainability and the environment

We’ve continued to make good progress on embedding our commitment to be a more sustainable organisation. Sustainability is a core theme of our business plan and 10 year vision. In March 2023 we published our sustainability plan1 which sets out how we will make further progress in the years ahead.

Our sustainability plan explains our sustainability priorities for the next 3 years supporting our core work and maximising positive change. Our 6 priorities are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, being nature positive, supporting the circular economy, adapting to climate change, enabling social value and empowering sustainable change. We remain committed to being net zero by 2030 and have explained more about our approach in the plan. We have considered the sustainability policies and ambitions of the 3 nations we serve across our work.

As we focus more on improved data collection and transparent reporting, we continue to learn more and to better understand our benchmarks in some areas. We’ve been clear in the UK Greening Government Commitments where this is the case – for example, mine water treatment scheme water usage and total waste.

We are pleased to have made further progress against our commitments.

During 2022 to 2023, key successes include:

• reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our estate, operations and travel by 34%
• increasing the zero or ultra-low emission vehicles in our fleet to 54%
• re-using or recycling 91% of our waste ^{[footnote 3]}
• developing a new beneficial use for our iron ochre by-product
• reducing single-use plastic use at our Mansfield office
• working with partners and communities to bring social and environmental value to life through our work
• beginning to baseline and develop nature recovery and opportunity plans across our estate

16.1 Our greening government commitments

Power	2022 to 2023	2021 to 20222	2017 to 2018
Power generated through our direct use of fossil fuels (kWh)	1,137,505	1,337,849	4,151,179	Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used at our Mansfield office for heating, and fuel oil
Total Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions from the direct use of fossil fuels (tCO2e)	290.94	341.08	1,141.29
GHG emissions head office from the direct use of fossil fuels (tCO2e)	5.89	12.49	13.70	We are using less fuel oil (in diesel for generators on site) following a switch to grid connections for our pumping tests
Purchased electricity (kWh)	26,478,211	27,009,063	20,494,016
Total GHG emissions from purchased electricity (tCO2e)	5,588.76	6,242.33	7,878.51	We are using more energy from pumping more water at additional locations but GHG emissions are lower due to lower grid GHG intensity and greater use of our own renewable power
GHG emissions head office from purchased electricity (tCO2e)	239.7	257.61	364.94
Renewables generated (kWh)	932,282	1,359,417	189,966	Our generated power has reduced as a result of supply chain issues in replacing missing and damaged solar panels due to theft/vandalism
Renewables used (kWh)	725,954	883,224	165,501
Renewables exported to the grid (kWh)	206,328	476,193	24,465	We support grid decarbonisation by exporting our excess green energy to the grid
Carbon intensity (kgCO2e/kWh)	0.207	0.225	0.364
Total head office power related GHG emissions (tCO2e)	245.59	270.1	378.64
Total power related GHG emissions (tCO2e)	5,879.70	6,583.41	9,019.80
Total expenditure on energy use	£6,345,257.46	£5,497,513.14	£4,348,855.17	Increased due to significant increases in energy costs across all sectors

Fugitive emissions	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2017 to 2018
Refrigeration and aircon (tCO2e)	46	34	6	A leak in the Mansfield office air conditioning system was detected and rectified, but resulted in additional emissions

Business related travel	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2017 to 2018
Kilometres (km) travelled	1,340,761	1,372,251	1,799,174
Number of flights	4	0	73
GHG emissions (tCO2e)	201.42	229.06	305.9
Intensity (tCO2e/100,000km)	15.02	16.69	17
Total expenditure on travel (domestic and international)	£302,932.96	£305,191.76	£354,537.00
% fleet vehicles that are ultra low emission or zero emission vehicles (hybrid or full electric)	54.10%	37%	0%	These figures are at year end

Flights for 2 staff to attend and present at the International Mine Water Conference held in New Zealand (4 return flights).

Total reported air travel distance for 2022 to 2023 is 78,692km.

Resources – water use	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2017 to 2018
Water use (m3) – Mansfield office	819	484	1,910
Mine water sites	158,201 [footnote 4]	34,352[footnote 5]	30,752[footnote 5]
Total expenditure on water	£22,582.52	£46,068.02	£65,259.32

Water use at our Mansfield office increased in 2022 to 2023 as more people returned to office working. Usage remains down from 2017 to 2018 due to improved water efficiency measures and continued hybrid working.

Water is used in the chemical process on some of our mine water treatments sites. We have improved our systems to collect data on usage which is more accurate than the original estimated baseline and we will work to make reductions from here.

Resources – paper use	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2017 to 2018
Paper use (reams A4 equivalent)	246	348	718

Waste	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2017 to 2018
Total waste (tonnes)	20,237[footnote 6]: (17,621[footnote 7]:)	30,383[footnote 7]:	1,417[footnote 8]:	We are now including waste from the Wheal Jane metal mine that we manage for Defra in our annual figures (figure in brackets without Wheal Jane for comparison with previous year and baseline). The Wheal Jane waste goes to a mining waste facility at the site with potential for future resource recovery subject to technology and economic conditions.
Head office waste recycled (tonnes)	3.55	2.88	12
Waste recycled (tonnes)	15,756	27,325	0
Wheal Jane Waste (tonnes)	2,616	Not Recorded	Not Recorded
Head office waste to landfill (tonnes)	0	0.45	6.9
Waste to landfill (tonnes)	1,859	3,058	1,405	Our mine water treatment wastes have increased from the baseline year as we have better measured our waste and as we carry out more maintenance. This varies year by year depending on our maintenance programme and the mine water flows treated (which can be rainfall dependent). Our focus is on maximising alternative uses for our waste to turn them into useful products and minimise waste to landfill. We use % waste to landfill as our key target.
Waste incinerated (energy from waste) (tonnes)	2.26	0	0
ICT waste	0	0	0	We reuse, repurpose or recycle our ICT equipment
% head office waste to landfill	0%	14%	37%
% waste to landfill	9.20%	10.10%	99.20%	Excludes Wheal Jane, which is stored in a mining waste facility
Total expenditure on waste disposal	£6,220.14	£4,264.71	£3,175.71	Mansfield office waste only, as only expenditure on office waste is reported currently for Greening Government Commitments
Number of Items Consumer Single-Use Plastics (CSUPs)	110,341	Not Recorded	Not Recorded	We now record and report single use plastics from Mansfield Office. We have developed a plan to reduce and ultimately eliminate these

This performance report has been approved by the chief executive and accounting officer.

Lisa Pinney MBE, Chief Executive and Accounting Officer

10 July 2023

1. The State of the Coalfield 2019 Economic and social conditions in the former coalfields of England, Scotland and Wales. Christina Beatty, Steve Fothergill and Tony Gore. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. ↩

2. Now Westmorland and Furness Council with effect from 1 April 2023 ↩

3. This includes all waste from our Mansfield office and all waste from our mine water treatment schemes with the exception of our metal mine scheme at Wheal Jane, Cornwall which goes to a specialised mining waste facility for potential future recovery when technological and economic conditions allow. ↩

4. Abnormal water use for Dawdon currently being investigated ↩

5. Estimated from average usage ↩ ↩²

6. All waste, includes all mine water treatment scheme wastes including Wheal Jane ↩

7. All waste includes mine water treatment schemes but excluding Wheal Jane for comparison to previous year ↩ ↩²

8. Includes waste from active mine water treatment schemes (Dawdon and Ynysarwed) but excludes other mine water treatment and Wheal Jane wastes ↩