To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the signatories of the Dublin convention determining the state responsible for examin-ing an application for asylum submitted in one of the member states of the European Communities have now ratified that convention.

Five—Denmark, Greece, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom; and I understand that in Luxembourg the parliamentary procedures necessary for ratification have been completed.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the proposal presented to the Ministers responsible for immigration at their meeting on 30 November in London of the ad hoc group, immigration, for a manual of European asylum practices.

The paper containing the proposal was a working document of no lasting significance. But I shall place in the Library a copy of the manual itself—a compilation of texts on asylum adopted by Ministers responsible for immigration.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the report approved by the Ministers responsible for immigration in their meeting in London on 30 November on countries on which there is generally no serious risk of persecution will be implemented into the United Kingdom law or practice in respect of asylum.

We have no present plans formally to designate any countries of origin of asylum seekers as ones in which there is generally no serious risk of persecution. However, the framework contained in the ministerial conclusions is a useful guide for the assessment of conditions in particular countries in the consideration of individual asylum claims.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken or plans to take to implement into domestic legislation the resolution on manifestly unfounded applications for asylum agreed at the Westminster meeting of the Ministers responsible for immigration.

The Asylum and Immigration Appeals Bill is consistent with the principles of this resolution. We have no plans for any further legislation on this subject.