asked Her Majesty's Government:How many applications for British citizenship were outstanding at the end of 1983.

Sixty-seven thousand, seven hundred and forty-three.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many prisoners were transferred under the provisions of Circular Instruction 10/74 in each of the calendar years 1975 to 1983 inclusive.

The information requested is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What official advice is currently available to farmers on the steps they should take to protect and maintain food production in the event of a nuclear war.

I have nothing to add to the reply I gave to the noble Lord on this subject on 16th January.

of Sowerby asked Her Majesty's Government:How many badgers have been trapped and killed since gassing was suspended; whether all badgers caught by trapping are destroyed or were released; and in what areas trapping activities are at present in progress.

Figures are not available in the form requested. However, from the time of the announcement, at the end of August 1982, that live trapping was to be adopted as the main method of badger control, some 1,700 badgers have been examined in connection with the official investigations of the agricultural departments. This figure includes not only those badgers live trapped by officials but also badgers found dead within the investigation areas.All lactating females are released if caught in the period February to April. After the end of April females likely to have entirely dependent cubs are released. Otherwise, all trapped badgers are humanely killed and subjected to post-mortem and laboratory examination. Official investigations into the involvement of badgers in incidents of tuberculosis are currently being conducted in a number of areas of South-West England, and in small areas in South-West and North Wales, Staffordshire and Cumbria.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the estimated number of magpies in the United Kingdom in the years 1965, 1966, 1982 and 1983.

My department does not keep wild bird population statistics. However, from the common bird census carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology each year it is estimated that the magpie population has increased by about a third over the past 20 years. The BTO's Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland estimated the 1976 population to be over 250,000 pairs.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What action has been taken by the Countryside Commission since the enactment of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to inform "persons resorting to the countryside of their rights", as required by Section 72(7) of that Act.

Work is currently in hand by the Countryside Commission to prepare and publicise information on the rights and obligations of visitors to the countryside. It is too early to say yet when it will be completed.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they agree that there should be a uniform ratio of population to magistrates on the active list serving petty sessional divisions in the Middlesex Area Magistrates' Courts Committee; and if so, what steps they propose to take in view of the fact that the existing ratios of population to magistrates in the area varies from 1,031 in New Spelthorne to 5,012 in Edmonton.

The number of justices of the peace on the active list who are assigned to a petty sessional division is governed by the number of court sittings necessary to dispose of the work of the bench and not by the population of the area of the division.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will initiate discussions on the future of occupied Lebanon and the international peace-keeping forces with the other powers involved.

We remain in close touch with the Lebanese Government, the other contributors to the Multinational Force in Beirut, and all concerned with this subject, on ways of making progress towards the settlement of Lebanon's problems, notably through the national reconciliation process and the withdrawal of foreign forces at present in Lebanon. We have also initiated discussions aimed at securing wider involvement of United Nations forces in support of peace in Lebanon.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why they do not think it appropriate to ask the Malaysian Government to exercise clemency in respect of four persons sentenced to death under procedures condemned by the International Council of Jurists and the Malaysian Bar Council.

We have no standing in the legal processes of a democratic member of the Commonwealth. When considering whether to make a request for clemency we need to consider whether it will help the individuals concerned. We do not believe that it would in this case.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What action they are taking to secure the release of Mahmut Dikerdem from imprisonment by the Turkish military authorities.

Mr. Mahmut Dikerdem was sentenced to a term of imprisonment on 14th November 1983 under the Turkish Penal Code. The sentence is now under appeal. It is not our practice to intervene in individual cases in which citizens of another country have been tried under their own legal system.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether British observers attended the trial of Members of the Turkish Peace Association and, if reports were received on the proceedings, whether these are available.

An officer from Her Majesty's Consulate-General in Istanbul attended the proceedings regularly. His reports are confidential diplomatic documents and are not publicly available.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will propose the imprisoned President of the Turkish Peace Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

No.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What boundaries in Africa had not been agreed by the colonial powers and independent states concerned at the time of the resolution AHG/res 17 {1} adopted by the OAU summit meeting held in Cairo in July 1964, and whether they understood that resolution as not applying to such boundaries.

We are of course aware of a number of differences of opinion before 1964 between colonial powers and other states about the precise boundaries of some of their dependencies. However, as other governments were and still are involved, we have no standing to produce an authoritative list.As to the OAU Resolution, I assume that the noble Lord meant to refer to Resolution AHG/Res 16(I) of 1964, which states, "all Member States pledge themselves to respect the borders existing on their achievement of national independence". The interpretation of OAU resolutions is a matter for that organisation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will accept the invitation of the Warsaw Treaty states to hold a meeting with NATO states designed to free Europe from chemical weapons.

We continue to believe that the Committee on Disarmament is the best forum to reach agreement on a total and fully verifiable ban, applied worldwide, on the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. The latest Warsaw Pact proposal is no substitute for the comprehensive agreement we are seeking.

asked her Majesty's Government:Why the United States, which already has 26,000 nuclear warheads, enough to kill everyone on earth and to spare, is continuing to turn out eight more every day and whether they will ask the US Government to desist.

We do not comment on the details of our Allies' military programmes but, if NATO's strategy of deterrence is to remain effective, United States nuclear forces will need periodic modernisation just as older warheads will need to be withdrawn.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How their representative at the United Nations General Assembly voted on each of the 27 resolutions on nuclear weapons considered in December 1983; and what were the votes in favour and against on each.

In order to support such resolutions the Government need to be confident that they are likely to advance the search for security through negotiated arms control and disarmament measures. The following table lists the relevant resolutions considered at the United Nations General Assembly in December 1983 and the votes in favour, against and abstentions on each, together with the United Kingdom vote.