asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the reasons for the delay and mistakes that have occurred in his departmental pay office in Hastings; if payslips issued from that office gave the breakdown of salaries paid; and how many civil servants have this year been asked to repay overpayments made by error from that office.

There have been teething troubles arising from complex retrospective pay adjustments, during the year, together with the transfer of all D.O.E. staff pay to Hastings; but these are being resolved. We are looking at the present design of payslips to see whether it is possible to improve the information given. 518 staff have been asked to refund overpayments. This is against some 2½ million such payments during the year.