asked the Home Secretary the total number of pit-heaps on fire in Lancashire; whether satisfactory progress is being made to cope with them; and whether any prosecutions have taken place in Lancashire, or elsewhere, against owners for not carrying out the law in regard to them?

Of the 33 pit-heaps or groups of pit-heaps under observation and treatment in Lancashire, 11 were origin ally classified as burning continuously and 17 as liable to flame from time to time. As a result of treatment there are now none in the first category and only four in the second. Owners generally are co-operating with the Department in remedial measures, and only two cases of prosecution have come to my notice. Neither of these was in Lancashire.