asked the Minister of Works whether he can give any indication of the average delay involved in the application for £10 building licences and the average number of such licences sought and issued, respectively, during the past six weeks.

On the basis of sample checks which have been made it is estimated that the average time taken by local authorities to deal with applications for building licences is rather under seven days in London and about four days in the areas outside London to which the £10 limit applies. During the last six weeks about 22,000 applications have been received, of which about 19,000 have been granted.