asked the Minister of Health (1) what arrangements he has made for practitioners who are willing to undertake full-time service in health centres in any part of the country to secure an opportunity to practise their profession in this way;

Before approving a health centre I obtain an assurance from the Executive Council, after consulting the local medical committee, either that enough local doctors want to practise there or that the need for more doctors in the area would justify advertising vacancies.

With reference to the first Question, does not my right hon. Friend think that if he agreed to the arrangement suggested there it would greatly improve the distribution of doctors, which is most unequal at present?

As my hon. Friend is probably aware, a special committee of the Central Health Services Cowed is exploring the whole question of the lines on which health centres should be developed.

asked the Minister of Health what is the total sum under the National Health Scheme now outstanding to chemists; over what period such sum is owing; how many chemists are concerned; and why there is delay in settling accounts.

About £3¼ million, representing balances due for the period August, 1949, to February, 1950, after substantial payments on account had been made to the 12,975 chemists concerned. The pricing staff have been unable to deal satisfactorily with the greatly increased number of prescriptions issued, but a new procedure has started which should lead to better progress.

While thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that reply—[HON. MEMBERS: "Why?"]—because I think that it was factually accurate—may I ask whether he is aware that there is great hardship among chemists throughout the country because, during the last six months they have been financing the National Health Service? Will he do everything he can to expedite payment in future?

We are doing all we can but, as I explained to the House when we discussed the Supplementary Estimates, there has been a very large increase indeed in the number of prescriptions. Ninety per cent. of the bills are paid within a month.

asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to reduce the delay in payments to chemists.

asked the Minister of Health on what date he proposes to pay the outstanding claims due to the chemists in the Parliamentary constituency of Tynemouth

Chemists including those in Tynemouth, are paid each month about 90 per cent. of the amount due for the preceding month. A new method of pricing prescriptions, introduced recently, is expected to speed up the payment of balances.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in Worcester chemists are experiencing delays of between three and eight months in some cases in receiving payment, and that at a recent meeting they resolved to make representations to the Minister which he should have had by now?

Chemists have their own means of making representations to me. The arrears cannot be more than 10 per cent., as I have explained. Ninety per cent. of the amount due is paid within a month of it being due, so that the arrears are only 10 per cent.

South Worcestershire is not at all satisfied.

As the Government are making money on the outstanding amounts due to chemists, will the right hon. Gentleman consider paying interest on the amounts which the Government owe to chemists?

I am satisfied that chemists are adequately remunerated for the services they render.

In view of the distressing financial circumstances of chemists, will my right hon. Friend consult with the Minister of National Insurance or the National Assistance Board with a view to giving favourable consideration to any application for help

asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to prevent patients who have been informed that they will have to wait several months for a bed in hospital being admitted within a few days to Section V pay-bed in the same hospital if able to pay the doctor and hospital fees.

If my hon. Friend will let me have particulars of any cases known to him, where admission was medically urgent and was refused, I shall be only too glad to look into them.

But has not my right hon. Friend had many such cases brought to his notice during the last Parliament, and does he not agree that it is unfair that there should be a restriction on general practitioners not to receive fees from their National Health Service cases when consultants are not restricted in that way?

It is, of course, for those concerned with the administration of a hospital to deal with matters of this sort. Obviously, it is an abuse of the Act to deny admission to a patient who requires it on urgent medical grounds and then to admit the patient immediately because the surgeon can obtain a fee.

asked the Minister of Health why the chairman and three members of the Kingston Group Hospital Management Committee, whose names have been supplied to him, have not been re-appointed; and whether the decision not to re-appoint these persons was approved by him.

The making of these appointments is a duty placed by Statute on the regional hospital boards, and no question of my approval arises.

Has the right hon. Gentleman investigated the many complaints that are now arising about the abuse of these powers by regional hospital boards, and in view of the fact—

On a point of Order. Is it in Order, Mr. Speaker, for the hon. Member to proceed with this matter now in view of the fact that only last night, or in the early hours of yesterday morning, he pursued the matter in Debate in Committee of Supply and received a full answer from the Parliamentary Secretary?

Further to that point of Order. The hon. Gentleman is, of course, completely inaccurate in referring to the matter as being raised in a Debate in Committee of Supply. It was raised on the Adjournment, and I would respectfully submit, Mr. Speaker, that when an unsatisfactory answer is obtained, hon. Members are not inhibited thereby from pursuing their inquiry.

As I have explained, this is a matter placed by Statute upon the regional hospital boards, and the House must not complain about its own decisions.

Is the Minister aware that there is a widespread feeling that there are some political backgrounds to these appointments, and will he give an undertaking that he will look into the matter?

That is a point which I have not yet been able to establish, but many of my hon. Friends behind me have informed me that they are satisfied that, in some instances, Conservatives have been put on some of these committees.

asked the Minister of Health whether it is with his approval that paid servants of Regional Hospital Boards or Group Hospital Management Committees are appointed members of the particular boards or committees by whom they are employed.

As a general principle, I am not in favour of these officers serving as members of the bodies with which they are immediately connected. The requirements of the Acts make it inevitable, how-fever, that a limited number of the senior medical and dental staffs should be so appointed, and I recognise that there may be other exceptional cases where it is desirable so to appoint officers.

asked the Minister of Health if he will consider sending a proportion of tuberculosis cases to Continental sanatoria in order to relieve the waiting list for beds in this country.

I have no power to do so. There is nothing in the National Health Service Act to empower the Minister or regional hospital boards to provide treatment abroad, or to contribute to the cost of it.

Is the Minister aware that it is only the slight cases which can at present get into hospitals and that more advanced cases, which have little hope of being cured, cannot get into any sanatorium? Would he take steps to see that they can be given this opportunity?

I have no power to do it.

Will the right hon. Gentleman do something about it?

asked the Minister of Health to what extent he has given consideration to the recommendation contained in paragraph 182 of the annual report of the National Miners' Welfare Joint Council, 1948, of which a copy has been sent to him, in regard to the establishment of hospital facilities for the treatment of miners who are sufferers from complete paralysis of the lower limbs, resulting from injuries to the spinal cord.

Steps are being taken to improve and extend the paraplegic unit at the Wharncliffe Hospital, Sheffield, and plans are being considered to develop the facilities at Southport and Stoke Mandeville, and to establish units in South Wales, Tyneside and London.

asked the Minister of Health whether his regulations authorise a doctor in the National Health Service to tell a patient that he is forbidden to prescribe the drug he considers most suitable for treatment on the grounds of cost, but that he may prescribe it privately on payment.

No, Sir. A general practitioner is required by his terms of service to prescribe such drugs as he thinks requisite for the treatment of any patient, but the cost of his prescribing should not exceed what is reasonably necessary for proper treatment.

Will my right hon. Friend say what is the remedy of the patient if confronted with this situation?

He has the remedy of changing his doctor.

is it not illegal for a practitioner to give private treatment, for which he is paid, to one of his National Health Service patients?

Yes, it is illegal.

asked the Minister of Health what was the total value of orders placed for medical services, drugs, prescriptions and equipment, and not yet paid for at the latest convenient available date.

I regret that information is not available in the form requested. If the hon. Member will let me know more clearly what he has in mind, it may be possible to supply further information.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, owing to State control and red tape, many of the biggest chemists are short of liquid funds, because the Government do not pay their bills, and that if a private person did that he would soon be at the Old Bailey?

That is another question entirely. We have no evidence at all of chemists being unable to get the necessary stocks because they cannot afford them.

asked the Minister of Health the approximate sums of money due to doctors and others under the National Health Service

The greater part of the remuneration of general practitioners is paid quarterly so that the amount due to them at any particular time varies between a full quarter's payment and practically nothing. The bills of dentists and opticians are met monthly but at varying dates. Chemists bills are similarly met monthly but only to the extent of 90 per cent., the balance for that and previous months being paid as and when pricing is completed.

Will the Minister say why there have been so many complaints from chemists in my own constituency, who have lost sums of money owing to them by the Government and which is causing them great hardship?

We have not received representations from chemists' organisations that bear out that complaint, but I will certainly make further inquiries.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that some chemists have gone into liquidation because they cannot continue to finance the National Health scheme? Will he give his attention to that matter?

If the hon. Gentleman will give the names of the chemists concerned I will make inquiries.

asked the Minister of Health how much he has realised by the sale of hospital securities; and whether the selling of them has been completed

The sum of £1,614,499 has been realised by the sale of hospital securities included in the Hospital Endowments Fund. Further sales, amounting to approximately £1,250,000, will be completed before the end of the financial year.

Does that complete everything?

I am not quite sure, but I think it does.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware of the shortage of accommodation for maternity cases in North Cornwall; and if he will take steps to remedy the situation with the least possible delay

I am informed that the regional hospital board are already taking steps to increase the accommodation available.

Will the right hon. Gentleman please give details of the steps the Government propose to take?

I will send them to the hon. Gentleman.

asked the Minister of Health what was the landed duty paid value of hospital glassware imported for his Department from Germany; the rate of duty paid; and the saving made compared with the prices for the same ware made at home

asked the Minister of Health in respect of what categories of glassware his Department have had difficulty in obtaining satisfactory tenders from British manufacturers

asked the Minister of Health for what kinds of glassware for hospitals British manufacturers have tendered; for what kinds no tenders were received; and the approximate value of the annual requirements in each category

I understand that the agreements between manufacturers and distributors of furnace-blown and pressed laboratory glass preclude manufacturers from tendering for Government bulk requirements of beakers, flasks and heavy chemical glassware. The total hospital needs are estimated at £15,000 a year, of which only one-third can be obtained under direct contracts with manufacturers. The landed duty paid value of glassware recently imported from Germany was £2,765, the rate of duty paid being 33 per cent. This purchase represents a saving varying between 10 per cent. and 30 per cent. compared with prices for the same sizes and types of British glassware.

Is the Minister aware that this is a trifling saving but that, nevertheless, there is a dollar component in these purchases and that if this glassware had been purchased at home he would have saved that number of dollars?

No; I think the hon. Gentleman is inaccurate in this matter. The reason why we went to Germany was because of an arrangement made between retailers and manufacturers of these articles by which retailers alone were allowed to tender, and that is the reason why this saving has been made. I have, however, now asked British manufacturers to tender again, and I hope that their conduct in future will be better than it has been in the past.

Is the Minister aware that his statement, on 14th March, that retailers had been asked to tender, was wrong? They were not asked. Is he aware that, by his own showing, he was also wrong in saying that there was a large saving by buying in Germany? Is he further aware that, by buying in Germany, he went against the advice of a Government Committee which said that this laboratory glassware was a key industry which should be maintained in this country at all hazards?

If we saved from 10 to 30 per cent. after paying 33⅓ per cent. duty on glassware surely an excessive price was being charged to British users. If this industry is necessary, as it is, for the welfare of Great Britain, that situation ought not to be exploited by the industry itself.

Will the Minister refer this arrangement between the glass manufacturers and the retailers to the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission?

I am considering it, but I hope that the steps I have already taken will improve their conduct.

Will the Minister drop the use of the term "percentage" and say how much money was saved?

No; I am not prepared to give manufacturers at this stage, when we are still asking for tenders, the precise information.

Would it be about £3,000?

No, it may be a lot more, but I am not prepared, when we are buying this material, to give tenderers information to enable them to fix prices.

Is there not, in fact, a dollar component in these purchases, and would not the Minister have saved a number of dollars if he had bought these wares in this country?

If the hon. Gentleman would give me information as to what is the dollar content I will try to have it inquired into.

Ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

On a point of Order. Question No. 26 was not called.

Questions Nos. 24, 26 and 29 were answered together. I was looking at the hon. Member, thinking that he might ask a supplementary question, but he did not rise.

The Question was not answered at all. I asked the Minister of Health:

"in respect of what categories of glassware his Department have had difficulty in obtaining satisfactory tenders from British manufacturers."

We have passed that Question. The hon. Member cannot ask it again.

asked the Minister of Health what evidence is available as to the percentage of deaf people who continue to use their Medresco hearing aids after an initial period of six months.

Information is not available at present, but I am already taking steps to get it.

Will the Minister examine the falling off in demand for replacement batteries, which appears to indicate the reduced usage of these aids?

As the hon. Gentleman is aware, it very often happens that deaf people, having acquired hearing aids—either the Medresco aid or private aids—give them up in despair because they do not like to use them too long. We are making investigations to ascertain whether there is any wastage.

asked the Minister of Health if he will give any information about the practice of some institutions which look after mentally defective girls of allowing them to take jobs of daily service; and what safeguards are taken by these institutions to ensure that the homes in which the girls work are of a respectable type.

It has been the practice in mental deficiency hospitals to grant suitable patients licence on trial or leave of absence to daily situations. It is a valuable method of ascertaining the fitness of patients to return to community life. No patient is granted this until the superintendent and the hospital management committee are satisfied as to the suitability of the place to which the patient is going. Thereafter, the patient is visited by the social worker from the hospital or by an officer of the local health authority, and reports are furnished to the committee of management of the hospital.

While thanking my right hon. Friend for his reply, may I ask him whether, in view of the fact that there have been some cases in which the proportions have not been sufficient for the purpose, he will inquire into those cases and see that these matters are dealt with to his complete satisfaction?

I will certainly make inquiries into any instances which my hon. Friend may bring to my notice.

asked the Minister of Health how many complaints he has had from parents of adopted children making claims under the National Health Service on the need for producing adoption orders in order to comply with regulations.

If the hon. Member will let me know what he has in mind I will look into it.

Is the Minister aware that in small communities indiscretions concerning secrecy are almost inevitable and cause considerable embarrassment to parents of adopted children? Would the Minister try to devise some scheme whereby the production of a birth certificate instead of an adoption order meets all the requirements?

I think the hon. Member will find that the requirements are already met. I will certainly make inquiries to see if there is any removable embarrassment.

I will communicate with the right hon. Gentleman.

Thank you.

asked the Minister of Health what is the present delay in the supply of spectacles under the National Health Service; and when it is hoped to overtake the demand.

asked the Minister of Health what progress has been made in the reduction of the waiting period for spectacles, as compared with six months ago

The average delay is now a little over four months, compared with some six months last autumn, and is rapidly decreasing. Supply has exceeded demand for some months and the greater part of the arrears should be overtaken before the end of the year.

While appreciating the improvement, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he is aware that the delay in the case of children is still distressingly long? Would my right hon. Friend urge opticians to establish some measure of priority for children, because of their rapidly changing eyesight?

I asked opticians many months ago to give priority to children and sick people.

asked the Minister of Health when Miss Palmer, 7, Bournemouth Park Road, Southend-on-Sea, is likely to receive the pair of spectacles ordered by her on 3rd June, 1949, under the National Health Scheme, through Mr. Vennall, optician, Southchurch Road, Southend, against prescription No. D. 1022.

Soon, I hope. I understand there was no case for any priority here.

Although there is no question of priority here, according to the Minister, will he remember that quite a short while ago the delay was four months whereas this lady has been waiting for 10 months? Is there any chance of her getting them before the next General Election?

The period of delay is now rapidly decreasing.

Will the Minister give an assurance that any ginger he proposes to apply to the supply of spectacles to Southend-on-Sea will not slow down the rate of production for Twickenham-on-Thames?

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware of the shortage of staff in mental hospitals; and what proposals he has for encouraging recruitment in this service.

I am well aware of it, and I presume that the hon. Member is referring mainly to nursing staff. A revision of salary scales has been agreed, and continuous efforts are made to bring the needs and advantages of this Service to the notice of likely recruits. My Advisory Committee is giving close attention to this matter at the present time.

Can the right hon. Gentleman hold out any hope of an improvement in pay and conditions reasonably soon, so as to tend to relieve the situation?

The salary scale has been agreed.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware of the concern in the nursing profession and the effect on recruitment caused by the delay in the publication of new salary scales; and whether he will allay this concern by giving an assurance that all grades will be dealt with; and if he will make a statement on the extent to which all new revised scales will be retrospective.

These are all matters for the negotiating machinery in the first instance. The salaries of some of the senior hospital grades are before the Whitley Council. Those of the public health and domiciliary grades have been referred to arbitration.

Is the Minister aware that all that is required to cure the deep apprehension in the nursing profession is the simple assurance that all grades will be dealt with and that all pay improvements will be restrospective to 1st February, 1949?

I respectfully suggest to the hon. Gentleman that it is far better to leave these matters to the Whitley machinery.

Will the Minister say whether the new scales will include the midwives' profession.

I think, as I suggested, that it would be very much better if these matters were left in the first instance to the Whitley machinery.

May I ask the Minister, in view of the fact that he has so much power and that the Health Service is within his control, whether he will urge the Whitley Council to get down to this question of the new salary scales? It is a fact that some of the Departments—[HON. MEMBERS: "Speech."]—I want the Minister to know that the Departments—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."] Well, will the Minister please give me some satisfaction?

I realise that the hon. Lady has not had much experience of the House, but as a general rule it is just as well that these matters of negotiating scales of salaries and conditions should be left to the appropriate organisation. The less the Minister interferes the better.

asked the Minister of Health if he will give an estimate of how many new houses would need to be built to enable every family in Great Britain to have a separate house; and how long the building of such new houses would take at the present rate of progress.

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 9th March to questions by the hon. Member for Tynemouth (Miss Irene Ward) and other hon. Members.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that he did not give any answer on that occasion?

It is quite clear that it would only be possible to answer a question upon these lines if a house to house survey were made of the whole country.

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that it would not be possible, even on a house to house survey, to get an accurate estimate without knowing how many young men intend to propose to how many young women in the next week or the next month? Any forecast would be completely inadequate.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is satisfied with the standard of accommodation of the Service hutments now used by civilian families around Colchester; and what action he intends to take to assist in securing decent homes for the families concerned, promised to them at various intervals during the last five years.

The general standard of accommodation in these hutments is as good as can be provided in such buildings. But in two groups where there have been complaints of condensation, the local authorities are doing all they can to remedy it. The continued use of this type of accommodation must clearly depend on housing progress in the particular area.

To what extent does the Minister think that people who are living in such shocking conditions—for example, in Rushey Hill Camp, in my constituency—are comforted by the knowledge that the huts in which they live are described as "new homes" in his party's propaganda?

The hon. and gallant Member is entirely inaccurate. The housing figures of new accommodation do not include hutments or Service camps.

Can the Minister give an assurance that there will be no, housing problem by the time the next General Election takes place?

The Opposition can rest content that we will never again accept any Conservative figures about housing

asked the Minister of Health what progress he has made under the Housing Act, 1949, with the reconditioning of farm workers' cottages.

asked the Minister of Health how many farm workers' cottages in England and Wales have been reconditioned under the Housing Act, 1949; and how many of such cottages are situate in the County of Norfolk.

Many local authorities, including rural district councils, are considering schemes under Part II of the. Housing Act, 1949, but specific information about farm workers' cottages is not available.

Is the right hon. Gentleman yet willing to admit that tens of thousands of agricultural workers would be much better housed today if he had not scrapped the Housing (Agricultural Workers) Act, 1938?

Very large numbers of agricultural workers who now occupy new houses would not be in them if the materials and labour used to build them had been expended in the way the hon. and gallant Member desired.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that the necessary increase of agricultural production is impossible unless licences are granted for the private building of farm workers' houses to be let at rents they can afford; and what steps he proposes to take to overcome this shortage.

Priority has for some time been given to agricultural housing, and local authorities have already built large numbers of houses for letting at rents which agricultural workers can afford. I cannot, therefore, accept the implications in this Question.

Is the Minister aware that if he examines the matter again he will find that the rural houses he brags about are being offered at rents that farm labourers cannot afford—in some cases, in my constituency, at 30s. a week?

If the hon. Gentleman will give me information I will have the matter inquired into, and also the character of the council concerned.

Does not the Minister know that I have already given that information in a Debate, about 18 months ago?

The hon. Gentleman then advanced a large number of opinions which were at variance with the facts.

asked the Minister of Health why it is necessary for a local authority to surrender one of its quota of licences for permanent houses where application is granted for the adaptation of a hut or pavilion purchased privately and off licence, before the applicant can erect or adapt the hut as a temporary dwelling instead of coming out of the permissible ceiling allocation of money for repairs, conversions and provision of additional housing, provided that the architectural plan has been approved by the appropriate authority.

It is not necessary for a local authority to use of its quota of licences for permanent houses. Where a structure is approved by the planning authority for use as a temporary dwelling and conforms with the local by-laws, the local authority may issue the necessary building licence out of their permissible ceiling for repairs and the like.

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that the housing authorities in Bristol are informed of this because, at the moment, they are not aware of it?

I should be astonished if they were not aware of it.

asked the Minister of Health what steps he proposes to take to have defined more clearly what is a fair rent for the guidance of rent tribunals and the law courts; and when does he propose to widen the appeal allowed to a divisional court against rent tribunal decisions from the one issue of jurisdiction to all issues.

I do not propose to introduce the legislation which would be needed.

Is the Minister aware that the Lord Chief Justice has stated that it is most unsatisfactory that there is no proper definition of a fair rent, and has also commented on the narrowness of the right of appeal? In view of that statement, and of experience gained in the working of the Act, will not the right hon. Gentleman reconsider the decision?

I have not seen the statement alleged to have been made by the Lord Chief Justice, but the House is master of its own legislation.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is no right of appeal at all, and that the divisional court intervenes only in questions of jurisdiction? Does he agree that in view of the very large number of cases in which they have quashed the findings there ought to be a right of appeal?

This matter was very fully discussed by the House when the Bill was before it. The House has taken its decision on the matter and, until it varies it, that decision will stand.

In view of the reference to the Lord Chief Justice, will the Minister consider the advisability of sending him a copy of the proceedings of this House, in which the matter was debated at great length, so that he may be aware of the reasons that led to the legislation?

I shall certainly find out what the Lord Chief Justice has said on this matter and acquaint him with the facts.

asked the Minister of Health which of the following local authorities have had allocations of houses which they cannot build: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry. Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nottingham, Plymouth. Sheffield, Southampton, Wallsend-on-Tyne, Whitehaven, Wolverhampton. Tynemouth and Whitley Bay.

It is not possible to obtain information in the form asked for in the Question. Allocations are made to local authorities from time to time and are based upon an estimate of what each local authority is able to build within the resources available. The rate of actual building progress which is made on houses allocated to an authority is one of the factors taken into account when the next allocation is made.

In the light of that information, will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability, when answering supplementary questions in future, of not trying to bowl "fast ones"?

Is there any objection to bowling "slow ones"?

asked the Minister of Health whether the Registrar-General is preparing to carry out in 1951 a census of the population of the United Kingdom; and whether a census of housing will be carried out simultaneously as was done in the 1931 census

The Registrar-General is making preparations for the next census which falls due in the normal course in 1951, and is in touch with the Ministries of Health and Town and Country Planning as to the information on housing that can conveniently be obtained through the census.

Will the right hon. Gentleman make sure that the Registrar-General includes the information needed to answer Question No. 2?

No, it would not be possible to obtain such detailed information as that for the census.

asked the Minister of Health if he will enable local authorities to purchase property at current market values, as under his present regulations they are unable to obtain the necessary premises

The basis of compensation on compulsory purchase was laid down by Parliament in the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, and it is essential that local authorities should not pay more than this basis allows, as otherwise the purpose of the Act may be defeated.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that it would be in the public interest if he recognised the change in market values, which has largely come about through the inflationary policy of this Government?

It certainly would not help the Exchequer if they paid far more money than was necessary for the property.

asked the Minister of Health the reasons for the delay in building the Haig homes for disabled ex-Service men in Cardiff

I understand that delay was caused by the decision of the trustees of Haig homes to reduce the number of houses at Rumney from 32 to 16 which necessitated reconsideration of the site, but that they have now been authorised by the local authority to proceed.

asked the Minister of Health (1) when he anticipates that a main water supply will be available for the Parish of Aust, Gloucestershire;

I have had no recent complaints about the condition of the wells in Aust, but a piped supply is undoubtedly needed. The area is within the limits of supply of a water company and I have approved a scheme for the extension of their mains to serve the area and the payment by the rural district council of a substantial part of the cost. I cannot say when the supply will be available because the company cannot supply without a new source and the procedure for obtaining the necessary water rights may be lengthy.

asked the Minister of Health if he will now give a decision regarding the third contract in connection with the Hug Bridge Water Supply, Congleton, Cheshire, details of which have already been sent him

The Congleton Borough Council have been authorised to accept a tender for this contract.

Can the Minister say why this matter has been pending for nearly eight months? Had he authorised the pipes last summer he would now have the water.

It is necessary always to consider starting dates for these schemes; otherwise, they would jostle each other out of existence.

Is the Minister aware that other parts of the contract have been completed, except for the pipes. which are eight months late?

That is the reason. If all these schemes started simultaneously they would impede the progress of each other.

asked the Minister of Health what proportion of the £15,000,000 granted under the Rural Water Supplies and Sewerage Act, 1944, has so far been allocated to local authorities towards the capital cost of providing piped water supplies in rural areas; and whether he will make more speedy use of the remainder of this sum for these purposes

I have allocated grants amounting to £5,709,000 towards the cost of providing piped water supplies in rural areas, and £4,130,000 for sewerage and sewage disposal. Applications for grant in aid of further schemes estimated to cost £16,846,000 have been submitted and will be dealt with as soon as possible.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that his answer is a rather poor commentary on the achievements of the Government in this very vital field? Is he further aware that if he could persuade his colleagues not to export so many pipes he might be able to get more speedy financial help to enable this important work to be carried out?

The achievements of the Government in this field in the last 4½ years compare very favourably with those of the previous 30 years.

Is the Minister aware that the information he has given to the House is not in accordance with information recently given to the House by the Minister of Agriculture?

Can the Minister say what proportion of this grant has actually been paid to the local authorities?

Not without notice.

asked the Minister of Agriculture how many salaried officers of all grades are employed by the Oxfordshire Agricultural Executive Committee including officers of the National Agricultural Advisory Service; and what is the total amount paid by the Oxfordshire Agricultural Executive Committee for wages and salaries

The salaried staff of the Oxfordshire Agricultural Executive Committee numbers 131 (including six part-time). Their salaries and wages amount to approximately £41,000 per annum.

Is the right hon. Gentleman satisfied that all these people are fully and productively employed at this tremendous cost?

Yes, and I think it is a fine national investment, as increased production has shown.