asked the President of the Board of Trade, in view of the discussions for a European free trade area in which United Kingdom manufacturers will be selling to customers all of whom will be operating the metric system of measurement, including the international screw thread system, what steps he is taking to encourage British manufacturers to offer their goods with dimensions in metric terms.

The Board of Trade takes every opportunity to encourage manufacturers to offer goods which are suitable in all respects to their overseas customers. There is not at present any universally accepted international metric system of screw threads, and I understand that threads in inch sizes are widely used in certain metric countries.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will moderate the hire-purchase restrictions in so far as they apply to public service vehicles.

No.

asked the President of the Board of Trade when he will submit draft regulations on the rates of statutory levy and payments to British film makers under the Cinematograph Films Act.

Parliament will be asked to approve these regulations before the Summer Recess.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the estimated revenue for 1957–58 from taxation levied at the rates in force in the year 1951–52.

A detailed calculation could not be made without an undue expenditure of time and labour, but at a rough estimate the yield of taxes, both direct and indirect, in 1957–58, if the rates and allowances applicable in 1951–52 were in force, would be over £800 million more than the estimated yield on the basis of my right hon. Friend's Budget proposals.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury how much has been sub scribed to Premium Bonds to the latest available date; what value of bonds will be entitled to participate in the first draw; and what the total amount of prizes in this draw will be.

Total sales of Premium Bonds to the end of April amounted to about £69 million. Only bonds bought during November will be eligible for the first draw and, on the assumption that no more of these are encashed, £48½ million of bonds will be eligible for £970,000 of prizes.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury the total expenditure incurred by the Premium Bonds Scheme in the last financial year; and what is the estimate for such expenditure in the current year.

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the right hon. Member for Huyton (Mr. H. Wilson) on 5th February.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury what were the maximum salaries and lump sum retiring gratuities in October, 1951, for the following classes of civil servants: permanent secretary, assistant secretary, principal and clerical officer, on the assumption of 40 years' of service, married without dependent children; and what they would need to have been at that date to compensate for increases in the cost of living and increased taxation since 1939.

The required information is given in the following table:

asked the Minister of Health on what dates he has brought to the notice of the Board of Control the request of the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford to be given permission to visit Miss Mary Betteridge, a patient in St. Margaret's Mental Hospital, Birmingham; and what was the decision of the Board of Control on each occasion.

On 15th April the hon. Member wrote asking my right hon. Friend to make application on his behalf to the Board of Control, and this request was brought to the notice of the Board on 17th April. The Board has informed my right hon. Friend that very careful consideration has been given to the case, but, in view of the opinion of the medical superintendent in charge of the case that a visit at the present time would not be in the patient's interest, the Board feels unable to grant permission for a visit under Regulation 48 (1) of the Mental Deficiency Regulations, 1948.

asked the Minister of Health the proportion of salaried to honorary clinical assistants in hospital posts; and to what extent it is his policy to alter the ratio.

I regret that the information requested is not available. I am writing to the hon. Member.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education in what way, and by what authority, local authorities may assist museums open to the public and which are not directly controlled by, local authorities; and what assistance will be extended to museums mainly supported by learned societies or private endowments.

As to the first part of the Question, I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the Answer which I gave to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Dr. Stross) on 18th April.I know of no conditions which apply specially to the museums mentioned in the second part of the Question.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance how many other retirement pensioners over 65 years of age there would be if, after 1st January, 1960, the age at which retirement pension may be drawn by wives on husbands' insurance, including dependent wives under 65 years of age, widows on husbands' insurance and women on own insurance were raised to 65 years of age; and what difference the abolition of the retirement condition would make to these figures.

It is not possible to make any precise estimate for 1960, but at 31st December, 1956, there were approximately 4,650,000 retirement pensioners in all, of whom some 650,000 were women under 65 drawing pensions either on their husbands' insurance or their own. In addition, there were some 80,000 dependent wives under age 60 for whom their husbands drew a wife's allowance. If pension age for women were raised to 65, about 200,000 of the women under 65 would continue to draw pensions as widows.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the cost of keeping a boy or girl in an approved school; what percentage of children come before the courts again after having left an approved school; and what percentage of people who have received Borstal training come before the courts again.

The average weekly cost per head of maintaining children in approved schools is estimated to have been £9 1s. in 1956–57. Thirty-eight per cent, of the boys and 18 per cent, of the girls placed out from approved schools in 1953 are known to have been found guilty of offences within three years of being placed out, and 52 per cent, of the boys and 28 per cent, of the girls discharged from Borstals in the three years 1952, 1953 and 1954 are known to have been found guilty of offences by 31st December, 1956.

asked the Postmaster-General what steps he proposes to take to revise the pay and conditions of post office manipulative staff in the light of the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service.

Reports of the Civil Service Pay Research Unit show that changes must be made to bring the pay and conditions of service of the main manipulative rank-and-file staff of the Post Office more into line with those already ruling in broadly comparable employments outside the Civil Service. These changes, affecting wages, the arrangement and total hours of work each week and other matters, have been discussed with the staff representatives and are subject to final ratification by the annual conferences of the unions. The alterations in hours of duty will involve some changes in the postal service. Only one postal delivery (the first) will be given on Saturdays (except that the London Postal Area will have two deliveries); and Saturday collection services and postal services on Bank Holidays will be curtailed.The gross cost will be about £11 million a year. We shall absorb what we can of this, but some increase in tariffs will be necessary if the Post Office is to balance its budget.