asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works how many yards of old tramway-lines have been taken up for melting; what has been the cost per yard of taking these rails up and resurfacing the road; what proportion of the work is done by contract or local labour; and the name of the contractors, the rate of pay the men received per hour or day, and the number of hours worked per day?

The work of recovering tram-rails is being carried out by various highway authorities in collaboration with the Ministry of War Transport. The information asked for, in respect of the many jobs, is not available, and could not be obtained without a considerable expenditure of time and labour. I am, however, pleased to inform the hon. Member that over 50,000 tons of valuable material have been recovered from this source, and this is less than half the total amount which tram-rails can yield.