asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about appointments to the Monopolies Commission.

Yes. The appointment of Richard Francis Levy, Esq., Q.C., to be full-time Chairman of the Commission from 1st November, 1956, at a salary of £4,000 a year was announced to the House on 2nd November. I have reappointed the following members of the former Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission as part-time members for the periods stated:

Professor G. C. Allen (1st November, 1956, to 23rd November, 1961).

Sir Thomas Barnes, G.C.B., C.B.E. (1st November, 1956, to 22nd November. 1959).

J. A. Birch, Esq. (1st November, 1956. to 22nd November, 1959).

Brian Davidson, Esq. (1st November, 1956. to 19th January. 1960).

I. C. Hill, Esq. (1st November, 1956, to 16th October, 1957).

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about references to the Monopolies Commission.

Yes. I intend in the near future to refer the following matters to the Commission for investigation and report:

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty if he will provide facilities for the repatriation of the body of Marine Cyril Goodfellow, of Kingstanding, Birmingham, who was killed in Egypt during the initial landings of British forces; and when such facilities will be made available.

My right hon. and noble Friend has already written fully and sympathetically to Marine Goodfellow's mother on this possibility, but his inquiries are not yet complete and he is not yet able to give a positive answer.

asked the Minister of Labour the fall in the number of pottery workers in Stoke-on-Trent at the latest available date compared with October 1955; and the percentage of employees on short-time working.

Statistics of employment in local areas are obtained only in respect of the end of May in each year and figures for May, 1956, are not yet available.Precise statistics of short-time working are compiled quarterly. At the latest date, 25th August, returns from employers showed 8,830 pottery workers in Stoke-on-Trent on short-time, but reports from my local offices indicate some improvement between then and the middle of November.

asked the Minister of Health, as representing the Lord President of the Council, if he will specify those research projects relating to mental illness and mental deficiency which are being currently sponsored or financed by the Medical Research Council, showing the estimated annual cost of each.

A number of research projects relating to mental illness and mental deficiency are in progress in the Medical Research Council's Social Psychiatry Research Unit.Relevant studies are also in progress in several of the Council's units whose main effort is devoted to other problems. These include: a study of the prevalence of schizophrenia in a rural and an industrial community; the relationship of various social factors to the incidence of schizophrenia and manic depressive psychosis; a survey of the effects of the operation of prefrontal leucotomy in the treatment of mental disorders; and a study of cerebral abnormalities in epilepsy and of the effects of treatment on the disease.In addition, during the current year, the Council is assisting, by means of grants and fellowships to individual workers, research projects on the following subjects: metabolism in schizophrenia; susceptibility to mental disorders in relation to certain maternal factors; the incidence of mental disorders in old age according to social class; the metabolic activity of different protein fractions of the brain; autonomic function and nervous tension; the effect of various factors, including electro-convulsive therapy, on the blood level of adrenergic amines; carbohydrate metabolism in manic depressive psychoses: experimental neurosis; experimental work on the disorganisation of behaviour under stress; the relationship between biochemical and pharmacological responses to analgesic alkyloxy-alphaphenylamines; work on certain drugs in relation to metabolism in schizophrenia; and the disorganisation of skilled responses in mental patients under stress.The Council's total expenditure in the current year on projects in the fields of mental illness and mental deficiency is estimated at approximately £30,000. It is not practicable to sub-divide this total since some members of the Council's staff are engaged in a number of projects at the same time. In addition the Council is spending approximately £110,000 on research in the fields of applied psychology and neurology which have a bearing on some aspects of mental illness.

asked the Minister of Health if he will give details of the grants-in-aid paid to the various welfare services provided for women over 60 and men over 65 years of age in each of the six south-western counties.

It is not possible to distinguish the amounts paid for services given to particular age groups from the grants in respect of the local health and welfare services generally.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware of the fact that the urgent waiting list of mental defectives awaiting admission to institutions in Derbyshire has increased by 35 per cent. since 1952; and if he will take action to deal with this problem.

Yes. One hundred and thirteen additional staffed beds have been provided in Derbyshire in the past year and larger increases are planned, chiefly at Aston Hall.

asked the Minister of Health on what date Mrs. Harriet Thornton was discharged as a National Health Service patient; and if he will let the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford have details of the certificate of discharge.

Mrs. Thornton ceased being an in-patient at Cane Hill Hospital on 17th May, 1956, when in accordance with Section 55 of the Lunacy Act, 1890, she was permitted to be absent on trial. She was finally discharged under the Lunacy Act on 25th October, 1956, and I am writing to the hon. Member about the notice of discharge.