asked Her Majesty's Government:How many civil servants fluent in one or more of the official languages of the EEC, other than English, have been recruited in each of the last ten years by each Ministry or Department.

A total of 756 members of the Home Civil Service fluent in one or more of the official EEC languages, other than English, joined the Service in the ten years 1966 to 1975 and are still serving. As the full tabulation by Department and year of entry is somewhat large for inclusion in the Official Report I am sending it to the noble Lord separately.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

(a) whether some or all ex-Prime Ministers have the use of an official car with a chauffeur;

(b) when this arrangement began and for whom;

(c) what is the cost per individual and in total;

(d) whether this arrangement continues for the life of the beneficiary or, if not, when it terminates; and

(e) in what form was Parliamentary authority obtained for this service?

All the then former Prime Ministers were in February 1975 offered the use of a Government Car Service car and driver for journeys in and around London. No charge is made for journeys to attend official engagements and on Parliamentary business in their capacity as former Prime Ministers. Use for other purposes is subject to a charge at the current Civil Service mileage rate. Very infrequent use is made of this facility and the cost is correspondingly low. The arrangement is intended to continue indefinitely. It is regarded as an extension of the normal practice of providing cars for use by Ministers, which does not require specific Parliamentary authority.In addition, the personal use of an official car and driver for all journeys was given to Mr. Heath in December 1975, and to Sir Harold Wilson in April 1976. The average annual gross cost of providing each car is £10,600. Use for private or party purposes is again subject to a charge at the Civil Service mileage rate. The arrangement is subject to review in the light of the security situation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they can supply, for the most recent convenient year, a table of the number of boarding pupils assisted by Government Departments at different categories of school in England and Wales, as in Table 26 of the First Volume of the First Report of the Public Schools Commission.

Information in the form requested is not available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost. Approximate numbers of children for whom boarding school allowance was claimed for the autumn term 1975 are as follows:—

Diplomatic Service	1,850
Home Civil Service and Overseas Aid Personnel	1,900
Armed Forces	22,000
	25,750

Of these children it is estimated that some 3,000 were in schools maintained by local education authorities, 4,000 in direct grant schools and the remainder in independent schools.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Members of the Diplomatic Service are paid allowances in respect of their children at boarding school in the United Kingdom within specified maximum rates per child. At present the maximum rates per annum are as follows:—

Boy's Public School	£1,404
Girls' Public School:	£1,348
Boys' Preparatory School:	£1,264
Girls' Preparatory School:	£1,213

Diplomatic Service officers who have not yet been posted abroad are not eligible for the allowance. Those who are posted to the United Kingdom from abroad continue to receive an allowance in respect of any child at boarding school, provided that they remain liable for further duty overseas at any time and are in fact expected to be sent abroad again within a few years (the average home posting lasts two to three years). If an officer has been five years at home, the allowance ceases automatically, except in rare cases in which an officer is retained in a home post for a short time beyond five years for essential operational reasons.When the recipient is serving overseas, boarding school allowance is not liable to income tax. When he is serving at home, tax is payable, and the allowance is "grossed up" so that he is left after tax with the net sum which he would have received if overseas.

asked Her Majesty's Government:The Percentage of Government offices:

The information requested is not available centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost. However, a survey carried out in 1970 on behalf of the National Board for Prices and Incomes in connection with their investigation into Pay and Conditions in the Contract Cleaning Trade (NBPI Report No. 168) indicated that approximately two-thirds of the total area of Government offices was then cleaned under contract and one-third by directly employed labour. I have no evidence to suggest that these proportions have altered significantly since 1970.The NBPI report gives the cost of cleaning Government offices by contract in 1970 as approximately £4 million. Information readily available centrally about the cost of contract cleaning is incomplete and in any case shows only the Estimates provision for the years 1975–76 and 1976–77. These figures are:

Department	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
(Full-time equivalent staff in post as at 1st April each year)
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food	239½	244	236½	233	230	238	243
Customs and Excise	198½	200	207	211½	234	252	274
Defence	60½	65	75	124	121	137	146
Employment	687	677	554	620½	525(d)	328	366
Environment/PSA (a)	320	270	157	115	120	155	169
Health and Social Security	749	741½	726½	699½	601	641	685
Home Office	88	87½	64	84½	79	96	99
Inland Revenue	377	385	407½	398½	389	398	405
Lord Chancellor's Office	(c)	(c)	173	148	172	172	190
National Savings	336	306½	278	199	182	132	129
Trade and Industry	(c)	90	82	78½	60	56	53
Scottish Office (Central Services)(b)	171½	95½	100½	158	154	152	150
Other Departments	577	539	591½	437½	430	432	704(d)
	3,804	3,701	3,652½	3,507½	3,297	3,189	3,613
NOTES:
(a) Department of the Environment established on 12 November 1970, incorporating the former MPBW, MMLG and Ministry of Transport.
(b) Scottish Office established on 1 April 1970, incorporating the former SDD, DAFS, SED and SHHD.
(c) Separate figures not available.
(d) The Manpower Services Commission, Employment Service Agency and Training Services Agency were hived off from the Civil Service in 1974 (204 staff) and returned on January 1, 1976 (273 staff).

asked Her Majesty's Government:The number of directly employed cleaners in each of the main Government Departments:

Departmental returns for the years in question do not differentiate between staff employed n London and elsewhere. The following numbers of non-industrial cleaners are expressed as full-time equivalents, with two part-time cleaners counted as on; full-time cleaner:House adjourned at five minutes past eleven o'clock.