asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what considerations led him to order the cessasion of the practice of virginity testing by immigration officials; and under what immigration rule under the 1971 Act it was thought previously to be required.

There has been no such practice or requirement. My right hon. Friend decided that no request like the one made in the recent case at Heathrow should be made again because such a request can lead, as it did in that case, to a medical examination of a sort which may cause unnecessary distress and which goes beyond what should be expected for the purposes of immigration control.