asked the Lord President of the Council if he will set out for each three-month period since March 1981 the number of meetings held by each departmental Select Committee and the number of pages of (a) evidence and (b) reports each has so far produced.

The information is as follows:

1 April—30 June 1981
Committee	No. of meetings	Pages of evidence published	Pages of reports published
Agriculture	10	203	6
Defence	15	357	45
Education	14	203	—
Employment	12	232	—
Energy	11	—	—
Environment	7	43	—
Foreign Affairs	10	112	23
Overseas Development
Sub-Committee	10	104	N/A
Home Affairs	11	72	14
Sub Committee on Race
Relations and
Immigration	12	145	N/A

asked the Lord President of the Council what is the average period that has elapsed from the publication of reports of the new Select Committee to the departmental response; and if he will give a breakdown of the average period elapsing relating to each of the new departmental Select Committees.

Details of the time elapsing between publication of individual Select Committee reports and of the departmental responses in Sessions 1979–8(1 and 1980–81 were given in reply to the right hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. du Cann) on 1 March.—[Vol. 9, c. 1–6] Details for the current Session to date are attached:

Report	Date of Publication	Government Response
	Agriculture
—	—	—
	Defence
First	19 March 1982
	Education
First	7 December 1981	*1 February 1982
Second	16 February 1982
Third	8 March 1982
Fourth	15 March 1982
	Employment
		(to the First Report, Session 1980–81) 17 March 1982 *(to the Third Report, Session 1980–81)
		18 March 1982
First	15 December 1981
	Energy
First	16 February 1982	No reply required
Second	11 March 1982	*1 April 1981
	Environment
—	—	—
	Foreign Affairs
		*(to the Seventh Report, Session 1980–81)
		15 February 1982
First	18 January 1982
	Home Affairs
First	15 December 1981

asked the right hon. Member for Middlesbrough as representing the House of Commons Commission if he will list the number of temporary Select Committee assistants appointed for each of the departmental committees, their salary scales and the period for which they have been appointed.

Details of the temporary assistants that have so far been appointed to departmental Committees are given below:

Select Committee	Number of Temporary Assistants
Treasury and Civil Service	2
Environment	1
Social Services	1
Education, Science and Arts	1
Transport	1

Their salaries, which were fixed on appointment according to age, qualifications and experience, are within the salary ranges £10,319 to £12,352 per annum—Civil Service senior executive officer scale—and £8,554 to £10,271 per annum—higher executive officer scale. All appointments are for two years, with the possibility of renewal by mutual consent for a further period not exceeding two years.