asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many members of the IRA have died from hunger striking while in gaol.

No prisoner has died as a result of a hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison.

Will the Secretary of State assure the House that the Home Secretary's eminently sensible policy of not force-feeding prisoners, in Britain, anyhow, will be continued?

The policy in Northern Ireland has always been the same as the policy for the rest of the United Kingdom, announced by my right hon. Friend last year. We fully support what my right hon. Friend does in the rest of the United Kingdom. We have always had that policy in Northern Ireland, I understand.

Has the right hon. Gentleman any comment to make on the statements appearing in today's newspapers that his officials, with his knowledge, have been in touch with the IRA in the immediate past?

There are two reports, one in a morning paper and the other in an evening paper in London. Both are false.