asked the Minister of Labour the number of persons signing the unemployed register at the various exchanges in Lanarkshire.

The table below gives the information desired:

asked the Minister of Labour what periodic examinations are made of men engaged in handling asbestos fibre; how many of them are suffering from abestosis and lung cancer; and what steps are being taken to reduce the danger of these diseases.

Persons employed in those processes in the asbestos industry with the greatest health risks are subject to compulsory periodic examination by members of the Pneumoconiosis Medical Panels established under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946. Out of 702 men examined in this way during 1953, two were found to be suffering from pneumoconiosis which would include asbestosis. No information about lung cancer is available from these examinations. With regard to the third part, the Asbestos Industry Regulations made under the Factories Acts, which contain stringent provisions for the protection of workers against inhalation of asbestos dust are strictly enforced by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Factories.

asked the Minister of Labour how many disabled persons employed in Remploy factories in Scotland are being dismissed; and for what reasons.

I understand from Remploy Ltd. that they are not dismissing any severely disabled workers from Remploy factories in Scotland. Three men on the factories staffs who are disabled but suitable for ordinary employment are to be discharged on redundancy.

asked the Minister of Labour how many Italians are now working in British coalmines.

About 860.

asked the Minister of Labour whether he will consider waiving the need for call-up for National Service of such men who can show four years' service in the Merchant Navy, together with a certificate of competency as second mate, and who will give an undertaking to return to the Merchant Navy in the event of hostilities.

No. The call-up of a merchant seaman can only be deferred so long as he remains so employed. If a man ceases to serve in the Merchant Navy before attaining the age of 26, he becomes available for call-up, if medically fit, in the same way as a coalminer does.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of prisoners in Her Majesty's Prisons who declare their faith as Church of England, other churches, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mohammedan, or no religion at all, respectively.

:This information is not available, as central records are not kept of prisoners' religious denominations.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make the necessary directions that in future London taxicabs must be so constructed that passengers using the back seats do not have to remove their hats to avoid continually knocking the brim at the rear thereof against the back roof of the taxicab.

No, but I have asked the Commissioner of Police to bear this point in mind when he next reviews the conditions of fitness laid down by him for London cabs.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many new licensed clubs have been opened in England and Wales since the repeal of Defence Regulation 55C.

:The number of clubs registered in England and Wales since Defence Regulation 55C lapsed on 10th December, 1952, is not known. The number registered between 1st July, 1952, and 30th June, 1953, was 869. More recent figures for the whole of England and Wales are not yet available, but the provisional figure for Wales and Monmouthshire between 1st July, 1953, and 30th June, 1954, is 61, making a provisional total of 119 from 1st July, 1952, to 30th June, 1954; and the provisional figure for the Metropolitan Police District between 11th December, 1952, and 31st December, 1954, is 300.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how far the setting up of the Mobile Defence Corps will result in any reduction in the responsibilities of the civil authorities for raising and training forces of Civil Defence volunteers.

:The new scheme will not diminish the need for the volunteer forces raised by civil authorities, forthey remain an essential part of our home defence. The Mobile Defence Corps will provide an invaluable strengthening of rescue, ambulance and firefighting forces, but if it is to operate to full advantage it must rely on the local knowledge and guidance of the local forces. Moreover, there are many other civil defence duties which lie entirely outside the scope of the new Corps.

asked the Minister of Education if he will now raise the limit of £2,200 gross income above which the parents of students winning scholar ships are restricted to an annual grant of £30 a year.

As I told the House on 3rd February, I am considering the whole question of university awards and will make a statement as soon as I can.

asked the Minister of Education what was the amount paid in maintenance contribution under Section 102 of the Education Act, 1944, to the managers and governors of voluntary-aided schools for repairs and alterations other than projects in local education authorities' building programmes in the financial years 1952–53 and 1953–54; and how much he estimates will be paid in this way in the current financial year.

£150,644 in 1952–53 and £321,781 last year. The estimated sum for the current year is £475,000.

asked the Minister of Education what steps he is taking to increase the number of places in special schools for educationally sub-normal children.

:Projects already in hand or due to be started in the coming year (1955–56) will provide more than 5,500 special school places for educationally sub-normal children. A further 2,300 such places are in course of provision through minor works. When my right hon. Friend recently asked authorities for their building proposals for 1956–57 he drew attention to the need for more special schools for these: children, particularly new day schools.

asked the Minister of Education the names of the local education authorities who operate the system of the supplying of milk to schools by tender.

:All local education authorities have been asked to supply school milk under contracts obtained by tender by 1st April, 1955. I am sending the hon. Member a list of the 104 authorities who are already doing so.

asked the Minister of Education what provision is being made for additional primary school accommodation in the excepted district of Newcastle-under-Lyme in the 1955–56 school building programme.

:First instalments of two primary schools, each providing 160 places.

asked the Minister of Education whether he will circularise all local education authorities as to the injurious effect on the public interest of a form of the statutory teaching of Christianity in schools, which induces children to assume that good character and conscientious conduct depend upon religious beliefs and are to be identified with holding them, while the non-religious view of human life is necessarily false and bad.

Certainly not

asked the Minister of Education what are the numbers in the United Kingdom of science and technology students per 1,000 of the population.

:For full-time students in universities and technical colleges the proportion is about 1·1 student per 1,000 of population. There are also many students taking part-time courses in these subjects in technical colleges.

asked the Minister of Education what was the average number of pupils, per full-time teacher, in the primary schools of the county boroughs of Barnsley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Don-caster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield, and Wakefield, during 1954.

The figures show that Sheffield should have been included among those authorities which have special need to recruit more teachers. The details are:

asked the Minister of Education what was the number of pupils on the registers of maintained and assisted schools together with the number of teachers employed in those schools in January last.

In January, 1954, there were 6,376,000 children on the registers and 232,700 teachers in posts at maintained and assisted schools, other than nursery or special schools.

asked the Minister of Education what was the number of students admitted exceptionally by area training organisations to training colleges for teachers at the beginning of the current session.

This information is not yet available. I will send it to the hon. Member when I get it.

asked the Minister of Education if he has considered the inadequate grants paid to intending teachers in training colleges; and what steps he intends to take to improve them.

I shall want to study this matter in the light of the report which representatives of local education authorities are shortly to make to me.

asked the Minister of Education what action he proposes to take to assist members of Her Majesty's Forces with the education of their children in view of the difficulties which Service conditions impose upon them.

:My right hon. Friend the Minister of Defence and I are considering certain aspects of the education of the children of members of Her Majesty's Forces. Meanwhile I have nothing to add to the reply which my right hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Beswick) on 16th February.

asked the Minister of Education what response he has received from local education authorities to the proposals set out in Circular 283 for more building for technical education in 1955–56.

Authorities have responded well, and I have been able to add 41 projects having a total value of £2,500,000 to the 1955–56 building programme, of which £200,000 is for Wales.

asked the Minister of Education what arrangements he has made to help the direct grant grammar schools to meet recent increases in cost, including those of the recent Burnham awards.

After consultation with the representatives of the direct grant schools, my predecessor introduced an additional grant of £20 per annum for each pupil undertaking work of an advanced character.

asked the Minister of Education if he will give an assurance that adequate grammar school facilities will be available to avoid the percentage of children admitted to such schools falling in the next two years.

:The percentage of grammar school places is part of the larger problem of secondary education which I am now studying. When I am ready I shall give some guidance to local education authorities on this matter. I can reassure the hon. Lady that I shall examine very critically any proposals for absorbing grammar schools into comprehensive schools.

asked the Minister of Education how many new school places, primary and secondary, respectively, have been provided during the past three years in the borough of Brentford and Chiswick; and how these figures compare with the three years ended 31st October, 1951.

:During the three years ending 31st December, 1954, 560 primary and 690 secondary school places were provided in Brentford and Chiswick. The corresponding figures for the three years ending 31st October, 1951, are 0 and 705.

asked the Under-secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations whether he will now approach the Government of Ceylon with a request that they should waive in favour of the United Kingdom the export duty of 1s. 6d. per pound on tea, in view of the large sums which the United Kingdom has provided, and is providing, for the assistance of Ceylon and the other Colombo Powers.

:No. Among other considerations, the United Kingdom is not the only tea-drinking country which contributes to the Colombo Plan.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware of the difficulties of an engineering firm in Aberdeen, details of which have been sent to him, which are due to a shortage of steel in this country; and if he will issue a licence to this firm to enable them to import steel so that they may comply with orders for the export of agricultural machines to Nyasaland and Burma.

No application for such an import licence has been made by the firm to which the hon. and learned Member refers. I should expect a licence to be granted if an application were made.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he has considered the report of the Secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on the activities of world oil cartels; and what action he will take concerning monopolistic practices by oil cartels in the United Kingdom.

The matter raised in the first part of the hon. Member's Question is for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has already informed the House that he will bear in mind the supply of petroleum products as a possible matter for reference to the Monopolies Commission.

asked the President of the Board of Trade how much of the cotton cloth imported into this country in 1954 was finished here; and how much was re-exported.

:No exact figures are available, but it is estimated that at least a half of the grey cotton cloth imported into the United Kingdom in 1954 was for re-export, after processing.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that since 1951 the index of import prices fell from 133 to 114 in 1954, yet the index of prices of all consumer goods and services rose from 136 to 150 in 1954; what was the reason for this; and what action he proposes to take to ensure that when import prices fall these reduced prices will be reflected in a fall in the retail price index and not arise, as has been the case since 1951.

:There are several reasons for the divergence between the indices referred to by the hon. Member. The reduction in import prices reflects very largely a fall in the prices of basic materials, which constitute only one and often a small component in the costs of consumer goods. The index of wages, which are a much more important element in costs, rose from 120 in 1951 to 142 in 1954. There are many items on which consumers spend their money, such as fuel, transport, rent and rates which are little affected by import prices, and whose prices are chiefly determined by internal costs.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people are involved in the increases covered by the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1952; and what the annual cost would be to restore the purchasing power of these pensions to the 1946 value.

:As regards the first part of the Question, no figures are available centrally. As regards the second part, I think that my hon. Friend overlooks both the principle underlying the Pensions (Increase) Acts and also the fact that increases under the 1952 Act may be paid to pensions first awarded at late as March, 1952.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the numbers of incomes, after tax, respectively, over £6,000, between £2,000 and £6,000, between £1,000

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total number of Civil Service pensioners on 1st January, 1955, and the number who were receiving pensions, including increases, under the Pensions (Increase) Acts, of less than £200 a year.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the revenue per head of the population collected from taxpayers in the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and the United Kingdom, respectively, for the years 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954.

I am advised that the amounts per head in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands for the last five financial years are as follows:and £2,000, between £500 and £1,000 and under £500, in 1938, 1945, 1951 and 1954, respectively.

The information is given in the following table:

:The answer to the first part of the Question is about 110,000. The precise information asked for in the second part is not available, but there are about 73,000 pensions below £250 which began before 1st April, 1952, of which about 68,000 receive increases averaging £34.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the maximum amounts to which pensions, awarded on the basis of 1939 salary scales for 40 years' pensionable service, can be increased as a result of the Pensions (Increase) Acts; and the corresponding pensions payable to those now retiring in respect of civil servants in the grades of clerical officer, executive officer, senior executive officer, principal administrative grade, and assistant secretary.

The following is the reply:

asked the Minister of Agriculture how many acres of agricultural land he has referred to the Agricultural Land Commission for investigation and report, with a view to acquisition under Section 84 of the Agriculture Act; and how many acres the Commission recommended that, in the interests of maximum efficiency, he should acquire.

None. The Commission has recommended 10,390 acres for purchase out of the 109,500 acres referred to it by the previous Government. Some 312 acres are in course of purchase.

asked the Minister of Agriculture what conclusions have been reached in his discussions with the National Farmers' Union about the desirability of paying, within the average rate of subsidy, a lower rate for calves with horns than for those without.

I would refer the hon. and learned Member to the reply I gave yesterday to the hon. Member for Lincoln (Mr. de Freitas).

asked the Minister of Agriculture how the average sugar-beet quota for Hampshire in the current year will compare with that for last year.

The quota for Hampshire for 1955 is 3,150 acres compared with 2,750 acres in 1954.

asked the Minister of Agriculture the area of agricultural land, including grazings, respectively, in Great Britain, and in England and Wales, in 1933, 1939, 1943, 1946, and 1953; and if he will state the acreage of forests in the same years.

The acreages shown by the official returns are as follows:

asked the Minister of Agriculture what evidence he has of the spread of myxomatosis to other animals; and to what animals.

I have no evidence of myxomatosis affecting animals other than rabbits and, occasionally, hares.

asked the Minister of Agriculture the amount of the landings of demersal fish from foreign boats in each of the years 1951–54, inclusive.

:For Great Britain the figures are 1,696,000 cwt., 1,205,000 cwt., 804,000 cwt. and 643,000 cwt., respectively.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether, in view of the number of deaths and accidents which have occurred in the training and exhibition of wild animals, including the death of René Ruellot who was mauled by four lions in a circus at Northampton, he will in future decline to make orders allowing the import of wild animals into this country.

:My powers under the Diseases of Animals Act do not enable me to prohibit the import of wild animals for the reasons mentioned by the hon. Member.

asked the Minister of Defence whether, in view of the increase in earnings permitted for the unemployed, he will increase the level of income for retired officers' earnings which is permitted without invalidating their pension increases.

:I do not think that these two questions are really comparable. There is already a provision to disregard up to £104 per annum of income other than pension.

asked the Minister of Defence which testing grounds it is pro posed to use for the trial explosions of the British hydrogen bomb.

I would refer the hon. Lady to the reply I gave yesterday to the hon. Member for Islington, East (Mr. E. Fletcher).

asked the Minister of Defence what steps he took before com piling his Statement on Defence for 1955 to procure from the United States Atomic Energy Commission the information sub sequently made public in their report re leased on 15th February last on the effects of high-field nuclear explosions.

:The hon. Lady is no doubt aware of the limitations which United States legislation places on interchange of information on this aspect of defence. Nevertheless, I think that the statements on this subject made in the Statement on Defence for 1955 are consistent with what has been published in the United States.

asked the Minister of Defence whether he will make a statement on the future location of the Amphibious Warfare Organisation.

Starting in a few months' time and extending over a period of about a year, the Amphibious Warfare Organisation at present stationed at Fremington and Westward Ho in North Devon will move to Poole where it will be amalgamated with the Amphibious School, Royal Marines, the whole establishment being known as the Amphibious Warfare Centre. A Trials Section will remain in North Devon since the War Department training areas at Braunton Burrows and Instow are the only suitable areas in the United Kingdom which provide the necessary beach and tidal conditions for trials of landing ships, craft and amphibious vehicles. The amalgamation of these two establishments, both of which are concerned with amphibious operational requirements and training, will benefit the study and development of the techniques of amphibious operations, and will also lead to administrative economies.

asked the Minister of Defence if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the number of male Regular recruits

asked the Minister of Defence how the period of National Service for youths in Britain compares with the periods of similar conscription operating in each of the other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; and if he will make a statement.

:I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3rd December last to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Bellenger).

asked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he will introduce legislation to increase the borrowing powers for capital expenditure of elec-

The following is the reply:tricity boards in the light of the programmes of nuclear power and in view of the need for a rapid expansion of the electrification programme.

No. The British Electricity Authority at present have unused borrowing powers of about £675 million and this will accommodate all possible capital expenditure on nuclear power stations within the next few years.

asked the Secretary of State for War when service in the British Army of the Rhine was last classed as service overseas.

:Such service last counted towards an overseas tour on 31st March, 1952. It then reckoned as one-third.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether, having regard to the several Departments concerned, he will appoint a committee to inquire into the effect of the proposed closure of the. Liverpool overhead rail way, upon the adequate supply of labour to the Liverpool docks, the efficient handling of the import and export trade at these docks, the safety and flow of goods and passenger traffic on the roads around those docks, the maintenance of work upon Admiralty contracts being carried out there, the continuance of contracts within the purview of the Ministry of Supply, and other relevant matters, and to make recommendations to overcome any difficulties.

No. I have no evidence that the declining traffic for which this undertaking caters could not be carried by alternative means of transport.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation on what day his divisional road engineer in Nottingham received from the Lincoln City Council the scheme for the Pelham Bridge.

On 15th February.