asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many students in the Manchester and Greater Manchester areas, respectively, are benefiting from his Department's grants for adult literacy projects; and how this compares with the previous academic year.

I have been informed by the Manpower Services Commission that in the 1976–77 academic year 85 people in Manchester and 118 people in Greater Manchester completed TOPS-supported literacy and numeracy courses. At present the number of people attending these courses are 107 and 110 respectively. Allowing for the fact that a number of additional people will be recruited to replace trainees who finish training earlier than anticipated, it is expected there will be an increase in the number of people completing TOPS-supported literacy and

Date				OMSC	ESA	TSA	Total
1st July 1974	…	…	…	34	—	5,447	5,481
1st July 1975	…	…	…	49	13,509·5	6,131·5	19,690
1st July 1976	…	…	…	190	14,381·5	7,296	21,867·5
1st July 1977	…	…	…	424·5	14,805	8,221·5	23,451

The figures refer to both non-industrial and industrial staff and exclude casual staff. The OMSC staff numbers at 1st July 1976 and 1st July 1977 include 74 and 269·5 staff respectively employed on the job creation and work experience programmes.