asked the Secretary of State for Air how long it will be before married officers stationed at El Adem and now waiting to get quarters will get them.

In general we expect officers now on the waiting list to move into married quarters or hirings by October next year.

While we welcome a limit to the period of compulsory separation of serving officers from their wives, may I ask whether he agrees that the Royal Air Force has been at El Adem for about fifteen years, and that this lack of married quarters must be detrimental to recuiting? Can my right hon. Friend say what percentage of serving officers who are married are denied married quarters at El Adem?

I think that I am right in saying that there are only eight officers on the waiting list at present who have not got hirings or married quarters. I speak subject to correction, but I think that is the correct figure.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that some hon. Members are not only concerned about officers' married quarters but about non-commissioned officers as well, and that some hon. Members have received correspondence from non-commissioned officers who wish their wives to join them? Can he tell us whether the officers and noncommissioned officers are put on an equal basis, or do the N.C.O.s have to go further down the queue?

I think that I can express the situation fairly clearly when, I say that our present plan caters for eleven officers' quarters and ninety airmen's quarters.