asked the Secretary of State for War to what extent the pipes and drums supplied to, and used by, Highland regiments are paid for from War Department funds; and if he will give instructions that in future subscriptions are not to be invited from local authorities or private individuals for the purchase of either pipes or drums.

Pipes and drums allowed on the battalion establishment are provided and maintained at public expense. Many Highland regiments like to have additional instruments and often appeal for voluntary subscriptions from public bodies or private individuals who have associations with the regiment.

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is satisfied that commanding officers give sufficient information to their units about the disbursement of moneys received as discount from Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes; and if he will make a statement.

Yes; a balance sheet setting out the receipts and expenditure of the regimental institute is published in unit orders after each quarterly audit.

asked the President of the Board of Trade how many firms in the South Wales Development Area are now affected by the recession in the motor industry; and what steps he is taking to provide these firms with alternative orders to avoid short-time working and unemployment.

We know of about a dozen establishments manufacturing motor car components where some short-time working or redundancy has occurred. These establishments are widely spread over the Development Area. The Board of Trade is not in a position to provide alternative orders, but where Government contracts are put out to competitive tender the usual arrangements apply whereby, other things being equal, tenders from firms in Development Areas are given preference.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what orders for lorries have been received from China and submitted to him for approval; and how many have been refused for security reasons.

Since the beginning of this year applications have been received for the export of 120 lorries to China. All have been approved.

asked the President of the Board of Trade to make a statement on the steps his Department are taking to improve trade between this country and Czechoslovakia.

Trade talks are still in progress and I hope they will be successful. Even without a trade arrangement our exports have increased substantially in the last two years.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if Her Majesty's Government will undertake a review of the statutory bans to awards of retrospective pay increases made by arbitrators in respect of all persons whose wages and salaries are paid or determined by the Government with a view to introducing legislation to eliminate all such bans.

The hon. Gentleman will have noticed the statement made on 12th July by my right hon. and gallant Friend the Home Secretary. I have nothing to add to that at present.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amount of each class of hydrocarbon oils retained for home consumption during

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether he will take steps to ensure that all decisions on planning appeals relating to matters of great public importance, such as the Fun Fair Tower in Battersea Park, are brought to his attention before they are issued.

That is already the established practice.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government when Her Majesty's Government propose to publish their review of local government structure; and if he will publish a separate review of its financial aspects.

I would refer the hon. Member to the replies I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Sir A. Spearman) on 8th May,

The required particulars are as follows:and to the hon. Member for The Hartlepools (Mr. D. Jones) on 26th June, of which I am sending him copies.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government how many unfit houses have been demolished or cleared under slum clearance and similar schemes in England and Wales from 1st January, 1956, to the latest convenient date.

During the first quarter of this year 5,735 houses were demolished in England and Wales under the Housing Acts and 2,318 closed. The figures for the second quarter are not yet available.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will introduce legislation to ensure that local authorities shall bear a share in the cost of the making up of roads where the houses were built before 1940.

No.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether he is now in a position to make a statement regarding the prevention of flooding in the Thames Valley, arising out of the Report of the Committee on Coastal Flooding.

A preliminary technical study has been made of the possible alternatives of raising the levels of the river banks, and of erecting some form of structure across the river which could be closed against a tidal surge. As a result, I have decided to appoint two

asked the Minister of Labour what action he has taken in the steel works maintenance men's dispute, since he was officially notified of the dispute on 3rd May.

This dispute was notified to my Department in a letter from the employers' association dated 3rd May and on 7th May my officers met representatives of the unions concerned. Since then there have been informal talks and correspondence with the parties, and my right hon. Friend has now set up a court of inquiry.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government how many compulsory purchase orders he confirmed, modified or rejected, respectively, in 1954 and 1955.

Following is the information:

asked the Minister of Labour the number of unemployed in the radio industry, and the number on short-time work, at the latest convenient date.

At 11th June, 1956, the total numbers unemployed, including persons registered as temporarily stopped, were 1,193 in the wireless apparatus and gramophones industry and 860 in the wireless valves and electric lamps industry. The latest period for which statistics of short-time working are available is the week ended 2nd June, when the numbers reported to be working short time in the two industries were 858 and 1,936 respectively.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of vacancies currently recorded at the Reading and Newbury employment exchanges; and how many of these are in Government service.

The numbers of vacancies for persons aged 18 and over notified to Reading and Newbury employment exchanges and remaining unfilled at 27th June were 1,102 and 511 respectively. About 50 of the unfilled vacancies at Reading and about 70 at Newbury were at Government establishments.

asked the Minister of Labour how many workers in the South Wales Development Area are now

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will give details of the proposed cuts to be made in grants and loans to international organisations and agencies to amount to £525,000; and if he will give an assurance

About 120 are wholly unemployed and about 1,400 are on short time. I am not able to say whether the firms affected expect an early return to normal working.

asked the Minister of Labour the numbers of men and women, respectively, at the most recent convenient date, unemployed in the City of Lincoln, showing their trades, and how the numbers compare with those corresponding for the same date in 1954 and 1955.

The following table gives the information desired:that no reductions will be made in the United Kingdom contribution to the United Nations Agencies.

The Answer to the first part of the Question was given to the hon. Members for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East (Mr. Blenkinsop) and Ash-field (Mr. Warbey) on 2nd July.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many persons were serving prison sentences in each of the Colonial Territories at the latest date for which figures are available.

, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 29th May, 1956; Vol. 553, c. 6] supplied the following further information:

asked the Minister of Education what steps he will take to establish more nursery schools and nursery classes in accordance with the 1944 Education Act for England and Wales, the 1945 Act of Scotland, and the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947.

My first aim is to reduce the size of classes for children of compulsory school age in primary and secondary schools. Until this is achieved, I must continue to discourage local education authorities from diverting any more of their resources of staff or accommodation to the teaching of children under five. Questions about Scotland should be directed to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, and Education in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Government.

asked the Minister of Education how many county councils let school halls to such bodies as amateur dramatic societies; to what extent such lettings result in a profit having regard to the additional expenses of cleaning, etc., involved; and if he will suggest to other county councils that they should give careful and sympathetic consideration to adopting a similar policy, in cases where a profit will result.

I keep no record of the number or terms of such lettings, which are settled by the local education or other school authority in the light of local needs and circumstances.

asked the Minister of Education the number of vacancies for teachers in the County of Middlesex, at the latest convenient date.

The Middlesex local education authority tells me that it would have liked to employ seventy more teachers this term than it had in post on 12th July.

asked the Minister of Education to give instructions for the immediate refund of superannuation contributions to Mr. G. M. Downing, Bradwell County Secondary Modern School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, who is emigrating to Canada on 1st August.

The Teachers' Superannuation Act, 1925, provides that a teacher who leaves contributory service is not entitled to receive payment of his superannuation contributions until after a period of three months' continuous absence from that service. I have no power to reduce this period.

asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to meet the acute shortage of trained nurses in hospitals under the control of the Swindon and District Hospital Management Committee.

The Hospital Management Committee, on which the initial responsibility rests, is taking the following steps to increase the number of trained nurses, (a) advertisement, (b) the training of student nurses, (c) the institution of a cadet training scheme which is making a useful contribution to the recruitment of student nurses, (d) planning, in co-operation with the Ministry of Labour and National Service, a nursing exhibition at Swindon for next October similar to the one held last autumn, (e) notifying vacancies to the local office of the Ministry of Labour and National Service.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will ask the secretariat of the World Health Organisation to arrange for records of smallpox deaths as well as smallpox cases to appear in the tables in those of their publications in which the information in regard to Great Britain is given, and to indicate where the smallpox notifications are cases of variola minor.

The monthly and yearly Epidemiological and Vital Statistics published by the World Health Organisation contain the information in question where it has been reported to the Organisation. For this country the source of information is the Registrar General's Returns which do not distinguish between types of smallpox.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has yet agreed the sketch plans for the Welwyn Garden City Hospital; and when work on the site will begin.

Yes. Site clearance work should begin this autumn and building about a year later.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money accrued to public funds in 1955 from fines imposed by Metropolitan magistrates upon London prostitutes, for soliciting and other offences under the general headings of prostitution and running disorderly houses.

I regret that this information is not available and could not be obtained without a disproportionate expenditure of time.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he is aware of the inconvenience and expense that will be caused to inhabitants of Oswaldtwistle by his decision to close the National Insurance office in that town; and whether he will reconsider this decision.

Although the office work is to be transferred to Accrington, an office at Oswaldtwistle will remain open for inquiries by the public who should thus neither be inconvenienced nor incur extra expense. These arrangements will effect economies, and in the circumstances my right hon. Friend, after carefully considering the representations, does not feel that it would be right to alter his decision.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if the total of five farmers declared bankrupt in Scotland in 1955 shows an increase or a decrease over 1954 and 1953.

Four farmers were declared bankrupt in Scotland in 1953 and seven in 1954.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that farmers in Scotland are finding it difficult to obtain credit from banks, in view of the credit squeeze; and if he will give the latest figure available of bank overdrafts to farmers and a comparative figure for the previous twelve months.

On the information available the credit facilities for farmers in Scotland appear to be generally adequate. Bank advances to Scottish farmers as at 28th May, 1956, amount to £28,112,187 compared with £27,574,763 for the same date in 1955, showing that credits available from the banks have increased by nearly 2 per cent.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what steps he proposes to take to improve trunk road communications to and from Swindon.

During this financial year I propose to spend some £36,000 on the maintenance and minor improvement of A.419, which is the trunk road running close to the town, and in addition I hope to start work on two schemes of major improvement on this road at an estimated cost of nearly £60,000. The larger of these two schemes is at Blunsdon Hill, about three miles to the north-west of Swindon.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation the number of children under five years of age killed in road accidents each year since 1950.

The number of children under five years of age killed in road accidents in each of the years 1950 to 1955 and in the first five months of 1956 was as follows: