asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what reduction he estimates in the number of male fiancés entering the United Kingdom under the new immigration rules.

It is not possible to be precise about the effect on numbers. But it is estimated that when the new rules are fully operative something like a half of the likely total reduction in recent acceptances for settlement of all nationalities of some 3,000 to 4,000 a year would be as a result of changes in the rules on fiancés and husbands.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the usual practice adopted by his Department concerning the admission of wives and relatives of husbands now resident in the United Kingdom but born in other countries, where such wives are additional to the first wife still existing and the relatives' children are born from other than the first existing wife.

Such wives and their children would be admitted for settlement only if they held entry clearances. An entry clearance should be issued only in a case where the marriage is thought to be valid under the law of any part of the United Kingdom. The circumstances in which such a marriage may be valid in our law were set out in a reply I gave to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) on 9 July.—[Vol. 970, c. 7.]

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what studies he made of international opinion before formulating his proposals on im- migration; and what consultations he has had with EEC countries and others before doing so.

There have been no formal studies or consultations, but as my right hon. Friend said in reply to a question by the hon. Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr. Bidwell) on 5 November, there have been a number of useful discussions with members of other Governments.—[Vol. 973, c. 9.]