Apparently it has to be the right kind of black hole according to Hawking:

The A Brief History of Time author went onto say that it would be possible to harness the energy of the black holes if it was the right size.

“A mountain-sized black hole would give off X-rays and gamma rays, at a rate of about 10 million megawatts, enough to power the world’s electricity supply.

So too strong or too weak could be an issue either way.  Fascinating none the less although sounds like quite a risk.

And here is a talk he gives in regards to information and black holes:

The presentation was made at the Hawking Radiation conference, which was co-hosted by the theoretical physics institute, Nordita, and the University of North Carolina, on the campus of KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Nordita is driven by both KTH and Stockholm University

thanks to express.co.uk for the great info