asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make available the advice of Her Majesty's Inspectorate and other expert staff in conjunction with the proposed BBC television series on adult illiteracy.

The advice of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools is available to local education authorities and other providers of adult literacy tuition, the BBC's Further Education Advisory Council, and the management committee of the National Institute of Adult Literacy Resource Agency. The provision of advice is also a function of the agency.

asked the secretary of State for Education and Science what is the latest aavilable estimate of the number of adult illiterates in the United Kingdom, categorised as far as reasonably possible into age brackets and distinguishing those who are and those who are not of immigrant background.

The Bullock Committee, in its report "A Language for Life", acknowledges that it is impossible to say with certainty how many adult illiterates or semi-literates there are in the country. The Department collects no statistics on this question but independent estimates range between 1 million and more than 2 million.