asked the Minister of Labour whether it is his intention to call up for part-time service women who have reached 5o years of age.

Yes, Sir. Under existing arrangements women of fifty who have registered may, after sympathetic consideration of their domestic and personal circumstances, and on the advice of a Women's Advisory Panel, be required to do part-time work.

asked the Minister of Labour how many requests for domestic workers were received by the employment exchanges last year and in the first quarter of the current year; how many women were supplied in response; and whether he is satisfied with the present position, especially as far as domestic help to expectant mothers, to mothers after confinement and to young mothers of large families is concerned.

I assume that my hon. Friend is referring throughout to the private household. Figures are not available for last year. During February and March of this year, 2,838 women were placed in certain private households and a "home helps," and at the end of March, 6,563 vacancies in this field were outstanding. The households include those of the type he mentioned, and also those of doctors and farmers, and households where there are invalids or infirm persons or large numbers of war workers. All that I can hope to do at present is to alleviate hardship in exceptional circumstances. To this end I have arranged that vacancies in households of the type mentioned above should have priority, and that Women's Panels should in difficult cases determine whether the household is one where domestic work would constitute work of national importance. In some circumstances, I am allowing a young mobile woman, if willing, to be placed in private domestic employment. As my hon. Friend will be aware, home helps are provided by many Local Authorities to give temporary help to mothers during childbirth or where the mother with young children is ill, and this service also has been given a high degree of priority.

asked the Minister of Labour how many youths who are now being directed to the mines have been, within the last 12 months, refused permission to join the Services on the ground that they were then engaged on work of national importance.

I regret that the desired information is not available.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that many dog owners allow their dogs in the highway without collars bearing their owner's name and address and as a result dogs are lost and cannot be restored to their owners; and whether he will take steps to reduce these offences by giving instructions for a general police warning.

I should be reluctant to add to the burdens of the police at this time. I hope that the publicity given to this Question and answer will be sufficient to call public attention to the provisions of the law referred to by my hon. Friend.

asked the Minister of Agriculture when he will state the result of his conversations with the farming industry.

Discussions are taking place with the farming industry on the various questions referred to in my speech in this House on 26th January last and on certain aspects of post-war policy. Useful progress has been made, but I cannot yet say when it will be possible to make a public statement.

asked the Minister of Food how many calves under six months were slaughtered in 1943 in the North Riding and in England, respectively.

While I cannot give my hon. Friend the information in the form asked for, as statistics of food production are not being published in present circumstances, I can inform him that the number of calves slaughtered in 1943 in the North Riding of Yorkshire was under 2 per cent. of the total number slaughtered in England.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he can make any statement on the present prospects of this year's fruit crop.

I am afraid it is too early in the season to attempt any forecast of this year's fruit crop.

asked the Minister of Agriculture to what extent he anticipates that the decrease in soldier labour available for assistance in the gathering of this year's grain and potato harvest will be offset by an increase in the number of Italian prisoners and co-belligerents who can be put on to this work in a year when harvest labour is otherwise likely to fall short of the demand.

Present plans provide for an appreciable increase in the number of Italian prisoners available for agricultural work in Great Britain this year as compared with last, and I hope that these, together with the considerable number of additional volunteers whom we are hoping to recruit, will more than offset the inevitable decrease in soldier labour.

asked the Minister of Health what proportion of rent is usually represented by the land on which a rural or suburban house is built in England.

I have no information as to the price paid for land by private developers, or as to the price paid by local authorities in respect of the particular areas referred to by my hon. Friend; but the average cost of land purchased by all local authorities in England outside London for housing purposes during the five years ended 31st March, 1938, was £228 per acre. Assuming an average density of ten houses per acre this represents a charge of approximately 4d. per week per house, or 4.5 per cent. of the average rent of houses outside London.

asked the Minister of Health if he has now received a Report from the sub-committee of the Central Housing Advisory Committee on the question of giving houses a fixed life; and if he will summarise the recommendations for the benefit of the House and circulate them in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

No, Sir. A sub-committee under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Mr. Silkin) is looking into this question, but, while I believe the investigation is practically complete, the sub-committee have not yet made their report. As soon as I receive the report I will certainly consider how best to make the recommendations known.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works the average number of baths produced in this country in the years 1937 and 1938.

I am informed that production of cast iron baths in the years concerned was 390,00 and 387,000, respectively.

asked the Minister of Health what urban local authorities are now actually Building new houses; and whether these receive any State subsidy.

One urban local authority (Burnham-on-Crouch Urban District Council) is Building four of the war-time agricultural cottages which are subsidised, and, so far as returns have been received, 17 urban authorities are completing 280 unfinished houses to meet urgent housing needs in their district, most of them without subsidy.

asked the Minister of Health the number of the 3,000 houses for agricultural workers which are actually completed and occupied; and whether in all cases the occupants are agricultural workers.

997 cottages are finished and 667 occupied. All tenants are agricultural workers.

asked the Minister of Health whether any local authorities have yet submitted to him schemes for the provision of district heating in the post-war period; and what steps he has taken so far to encourage developments in this field.

No, Sir. The whole question is being examined by a Sub-Committee of a Committee on Heating and Ventilation convened by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as part of the investigations being co-ordin-ated by the Post-War Building Directorate of the Ministry of Works.

asked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he has considered the representation on behalf of thousands of workers employed in important industries in South Wales regarding the coal supply, which at present is no more than a half cwt. per week and that, in the absence of any alternative fuel for cooking, etc., the majority of these people are suffering great hardship; and what steps he is taking to remedy this grievance.

My right hon. and gallant Friend has received no such representations. Owing to the recent fall in production of coal it has been necessary to make various re-adjustments of coal supplies, and in consequence the supplies to the house coal market in South Wales have had to be curtailed. I hope it may be possible to restore normal supplies in that area by the end of April. In the meanwhile, arrangements have been made to ensure equitable distribution of the limited supplies available and to meet individual cases of undue hardship.

asked the Minister of Labour if he can make any statement on the progress and activities of the Catering Wages Commission.

In accordance with Section 2 (1) (d) of the Catering Wages Act the Commission will in due course submit a report on their proceedings which will be laid before Parliament. Meanwhile, I may say that the Commission have made a recommendation for the establishment of a Wages Board for Industrial and Staff Canteens, and as I stated in reply to a Question by the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Bellenger) on 16th March I have made an Order establishing a Wages Board.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the figures for absenteeism in the Civil Service before and after provision was made for the payment of full sickness benefit for a period of 13 weeks in any one year; and what has been the approximate cost of that provision.

I assume that, in referring to figures for absenteeism in the Civil Service, my hon. Friend means figures for sick leave, though this is not the same thing. I am afraid that, owing to shortage of staff, Departments have not kept complete sick leave returns since the outbreak of war, and that up-to-date figures are not available. In any event, provision for three months' fully paid sick leave for senior temporary employees, and rather less for more junior employees, has been in operation in the Civil Service for nearly thirty years,and I do not think that any comparisons with sick leave figures of temporary employees before the last war would, even if they were available, be at all illuminating.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the amount paid by a billeting authority is assessable to Income Tax as part of the remuneration of the person billeted.

No, Sir. The billeting allowance paid by a billeting authority to a billetor under the official Government schemes, to which I presume my hon. Friend refers, is not taxable remuneration of the person billeted.

asked the Minister of Aircraft Production whether the acquisition by the State of the jet propulsion discovery will restrict its use to the State or whether, and on what terms, private enterprise will be allowed to develop its application.

Several private enterprise firms are already engaged in developing jet propulsion and other gas turbine engines under Government contract, and with facilities largely supplied by the Government. The object of acquiring one of these firms, Power Jets Ltd., is to establish a centre for the investigation of gas turbine problems. The results of these investigations will be available to the private firms engaged on gas turbine work to supplement their own researches. There will not, therefore, be any restriction on private enterprise. On the contrary, it will be assisted and stimulated by the proposed new arrangement.

asked the Minister of Food whether the dried egg powder supplied to the public is solely made from hens' eggs.

Yes, Sir.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will consider advising local authorities as to the proper standard of sanitary accommodation in camping grounds.

The sanitary condition of camping grounds is now regulated by Section 269 of the Public Health Act, 1936, which entrusts to local authorities the granting or withholding of licences for moveable dwellings. They may attach to a licence such conditions as they think fit, inter alia, for securing sanitary conditions. The conditions imposed must to a large extent turn upon the circumstances of the site and general advice would not be of much assistance. Local authorities have not indicated to me that they need advice in the exercise of their powers under the Section, but the help of officers of the Ministry is always available in dealing with any application of special difficulty.

asked the Minister of Health whether he intends to recommend that the salary scales suggested in the first Report of the Nurses' Salaries Committee should be uniformly adopted by all hospital authorities, as unless such scales are nationally adopted, it will not be possible to bring to an end the undesirable competition for staff between different hospital authorities, which the scales recommended by the committee were intended to avoid.

My predecessor commended the recommendations in the Committee's First Report to all hospital authorities on 11th February, 1943, the day when the Report was published. In a subsequent communication to hospital authorities, on 2nd December, 1943, I made it clear to the authorities that, like the Committee, I strongly deprecate competition for staff.

asked the Minister of Health (1) what percentage and what approximate number of married and unmarried mothers, respectively, employed in industry continue their work up to the second and third month before confinement;(2) what percentage and what approximate numbers of married and unmarried mothers, respectively, employed in industry return to work within 12 weeks of their confinement;(3) what percentage and what approximate numbers of married and unmarried mothers, respectively, employed in industry draw sickness benefit before and after their confinement; and for what period.

From a recent sample investigation made by the Government Actuary, with the help of several approved societies having a substantial number of married women members, it appears that of married women claiming maternity benefit about 5 per cent. continued work up to the end of the second month before confinement, about 17 per cent, continued work up to the beginning of that month and about 29 per cent. continued work up to the beginning of the third month. The corresponding figures shown by the investigation were for unmarried women (including both spinsters and widows) 29 per cent., 57 per cent. and 7o per cent. respectively. The same investigation showed that, in the group examined, 93 per cent. of the married women and 45 per cent. of the unmarried women had not returned to work within 12 weeks of their confinement.The investigation also showed that about 60 per cent. of those who were confined drew sickness benefit at some time in the six months before confinement, whether they were married or unmarried, the average duration of benefit drawn in this period being about 8½ weeks per married woman and 7½ weeks per unmarried woman receiving benefit About one-third of those in receipt of benefit immediately before confinement had drawn sickness benefit for at least two months and about 40 per cent. for between one and two months. Further, about 20 per cent. of the married and 30 per cent. of the unmarried mothers drew sickness benefit at some time in the three months after confinement, the average duration of benefit per claimant being about 5½ weeks for married women and 4½ weeks for unmarried women. In this connection it should be borne in mind that sickness benefit is not ordinarily payable in the four weeks immediately following confinement in view of the provision for maternity benefit. I regret that I have no satisfactory information as to the numbers of women concerned.