asked the Minister of Supply by what percentage he proposes to reduce orders for military aircraft in the next year, as compared with last year; and what measures are to be taken to prevent a reduction in military contracts from dislocating the development and production of civil aircraft.

So far as I can see at the moment I expect next year's aircraft production programme to be about 9 per cent. less than this year's, but I cannot of course anticipate the next Defence White Paper. The answer to the second part of the Question is that the reductions in military contracts placed with the manufacturers of civil aircraft should have little or no effect next year upon the development or production of their civil aircraft. I shall, however, keep the matter closely under review.

asked the Minister of Health what further response he has received to his suggestion that local authorities should undertake the duty of acquainting the public with the dangers of tobacco smoking; and whether he is yet satisfied with this response.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that local health authorities generally appear to be doing very little to disseminate amongst the public the information given to them by him in regard to the dangers of lung cancer from smoking; and whether he can now say what further steps he proposes to take in the matter.

asked the Minister of Health if he is satisfied with the response of local authorities to his appeal to bring before the public notice the dangers of tobacco smoking.

Since my reply to the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford (Mr. Dodds) on 15th November, more local health authorities have taken action to provide suitable health education on this subject, but it is still too soon to estimate the general effect and to judge what further action is needed.

asked the Minister of Health to what extent the statement of the Parliamentary Secretary to the House on 8th February, 1956, in regard to the propriety of the Minister interfering with the decisions of a Whitley Council still represents the policy of his Department; and how far this policy has now been modified.

I do not dissent from the statement which must of course be viewed in the context in which it was made. It related to a situation in which a disagreement between the two sides of a Whitley Council was at the time before the Industrial Court for arbitration.

asked the Minister of Health if there is now the same shortage of sanitary inspectors as prevailed in 1955; and what assistance his Department is giving to local authorities in order to overcome this problem.

Exact figures of shortages are not available, but there has since 1955 been a considerable rise in the number of newly qualified inspectors. Recruitment should continue to improve as a result of the work of the Public Health Inspectors Education Board, and the other measures that have been taken.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will take steps, through his official representatives on the management side of the Professional and Technical Staffs Council A of the Whitley Councils for the Health Services (Great Britain), to expedite negotiations on a claim for an improvement of the salary scales of radiographers, which was submitted by the staff side in September last.

The claim and its implications are being studied by the Management Side of the Council, and I am satisfied that it will proceed as quickly as it can, compatibly with the discharge of its function.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has considered the letter sent to him by the Sunderland Executive Council regarding the Government's veto of an award of the National Whitley Council; and what reply he has sent.

Yes. I have explained to the Council the reasons for withholding approval.

asked the Minister of Health the establishment for domiciliary midwives in Sunderland; and how many domiciliary midwives were employed in Sunderland on the latest available date.

I am informed that the establishment for midwives is 38, and that 27, two of whom are part-time, are at present employed.

asked the Minister of Health the number of persons employed in the clerical and administrative staffs of the National Health Service in each year since 1948.

Comprehensive figures are available only from 1951 onwards. Following is the information:

asked the Minister of Health what official research is in progress to establish standards of permissible infectivity in effluents from sewage works, from built-up areas or from vehicles.

None, but on the question of sewage effluents I cannot add to the replies given to my hon. Friend on 2nd December by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government and myself and, on the question of vehicles, to my reply on 29th October to the hon. Member for Cardiff, North (Mr. Llewellyn).

asked the Minister of Health if he intends to approve the recent award, by the Whitley Council, of a five per cent. salary increase to 8,000 Health Service workers, therapists and other specialists; and whether this award will be back-dated to 1st October.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I are considering the matter.

asked the Minister of Health if he will make a statement on his meeting with the Staff Side of the General Whitley Council concerning his refusal to allow a three per cent. salary increase recently agreed unanimously by the employees side, hospital staffs.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I had a full and frank discussion with the deputation on varied aspects of the negotiating machinery in the Health Service and reaffirmed our undertaking to review in due course the decision referred to in the Question.

asked the Minister of Health on what date (he appointed the Chairman and Regional Hospital Board responsible for the appointment of the Chairman of the Uxbridge Hospital Management Committee.

The appointment of this Chairman of this Management Committee was first made in 1949, when the Board, with the hon. Member for Tottenham (Sir F. Messer) as Chairman, was that appointed in 1947 by the right hon. Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Bevan).

asked the Minister of Health why he will not allow regional hospital boards to use the services of the National Fuel Efficiency Service for the training of stokers.

The scheme worked out by representatives of the hospital authorities and my officers, and now in operation, is regarded as better suited to the special needs of the hospital service.

asked the Minister of Health if he will give the latest figures of nurses employed in the general hospital service in the North-Eastern Regional Board area; and how such figures compare with the relative period in 1956.

The total nursing staff at all hospitals, other than mental and mental deficiency hospitals in the Newcastle Regional Hospital area at 30th September, 1957, was 6,242 whole-time and 1,327 part-time. The corresponding figures at 30th September, 1956, were 6,263 whole-time and 1,153 part-time.

asked the Minister of Health (1) whether he is aware that patients are able to purchase early admission to hospitals by paying a consultant's private fee; and, since this means that other cases have to wait longer for admission, what action he is taking to end this practice;(2) how many patients were given priority admission to the Moorfields Eye Hospital during 1955 and 1956 solely because they had paid a private fee to a consultant; and whether he will take steps to end this means of admission to hospital.

Section 5 of the National Health Service Act, 1946 provides for beds to be set aside for private patients, and for doctors to be able to charge fees to those patients. These beds may also be used without payment for patients who urgently need them on medical grounds and for whom suitable accommodation is not otherwise available. Earlier admission may sometimes be secured through use of private pay-beds, but the extent to which this has occurred at Moorfields Hospital is not known. The general question was fully considered by Parliament in 1946, and I am not satisfied that there is sufficient reason for departing from the decision then reached and embodied in the National Health Service Act.

asked the Minister of Health when the Report of the Sub-Committee of the Central Health Services Council on the Control of Dangerous Drugs and Poisons in Hospitals will be circulated to hospitals.

I am arranging for the publication of this Report but am not yet able to say when it will be available.

asked the Minister of Health how often each month visitors are allowed to visit patients at Rampton Mental Hospital; what are the visiting hours; what proportion of visitors is allowed to see patients for the full regulation time; and why the full time is not always made available to visitors.

Visits may be made six or seven times each month from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. and more often on request. The time a visitor spends with a patient depends on whether the visit has been notified in advance so that the patient can be moved to the nearest ward in readiness for the visit and on the time-tables of local buses and trains.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the shortage of radiographers in hospital service, he will now institute training schemes.

One hundred and fourteen hospital authorities already provide training facilities, and the desirability of opening additional schools in certain hospital regions is being considered.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the Resolution of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe that member Governments should ensure that about 1 per cent. of their national incomes is made available to meet the needs of underdeveloped areas; and what action he is taking to implement this resolution.

The Resolution to which the right hon. Member refers will be considered by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at its meeting in Paris this week. I cannot anticipate the result of that meeting. But I can say that the total of Government assistance to underdeveloped areas together with net private investment is already very large and probably not far short of the proportion of 1 per cent. of our national income recommended by the Assembly of the Council of Europe.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if, in view of the fact that the present North Atlantic Treaty Organisation policy is likely to result in Germany becoming involved in a nuclear war, he will propose at the forthcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organisation conference that Germany shall cease to be associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and become a neutral country like Austria.

No. As I entirely reject the proposition contained in the first part of the hon. Member's Question, he will appreciate that I see no merit in the suggestion contained in the second part.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that in the Reserved Area of the Haud on 19th November an armed clash occurred between British Somaliland tribal police and Ethiopian askaris resulting in one Protectorate policeman being wounded and two Ethiopian askaris killed, and that tension is high due to the presence of large, well-armed Ethiopian forces; and what steps Her Majesty's Government is taking to safeguard British Protected Somalis.

There have been a number of incidents in the Reserved Area of the Haud in recent weeks involving Ethiopian Police and tribal police from the Somaliland Protectorate. The incident of 19th November was the most serious of these. Apart from this occasion no deaths have been reported.The situation is causing concern both to the Government of the Protectorate and to the Ethiopian Government. Her Majesty's Ambassador in Addis Ababa has made representations to the Ethiopian Government, and is keeping in close touch with them with a view to reducing tension in the area. Officers of the British Liaison Organisation are doing everything in their power to try to prevent a recurrence of these incidents and are consulting with the Ethiopian authorities for this purpose.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the visit of Herr von Brentano to London.

I would refer the hon. Member to the communiqué which was issued at the conclusion of the visit. I would only add that I agree with what Herr von Brentano said before he left London, namely that Anglo-German relations have never been closer than they are today.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what facilities have been offered to Her Majesty's Government by the Belgian Government for the Universal and International Exhibition in Brussels in April, 1958; and what steps he is taking to secure that Britain's exhibits are presented in a coordinated and coherent way.

The Belgian Government have provided a site of over five acres on which are being erected an official pavilion by Her Majesty's Government and a pavilion displaying products of British industry by the Federation of British Industries. In addition, opportunities are being provided by the Belgian authorities for British musical and theatrical performances and a large number of British contributions to the International Palaces of Science and Art have been requested.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the amount of the last five annual grants to the Refugees Fund of the United Nations; and if he will make a statement.

Annual contributions to the United Nations Refugee Fund have only been made since 1955, when the High Commissioner's present resettlement programme began. To this programme Her Majesty's Government have contributed annually £80,000 outright and an additional £20,000 provided that contributions from Governments reached a total of $3·25 million. This condition was fulfilled in 1956 but not in 1955.

asked the Paymaster-General if he will indicate the economics upon which he has agreed the experiment of bringing liquid methane into this country to make into gas.

Approval to the experiment was given on the basis of indications that cheaper gas could be provided by full-scale imports of liquid methane than by any other known method of gasification.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consultations he had with the Potato Marketing Board before deciding to permit the importation of foreign potatoes.

A meeting was held with the Chairman and representatives of the Potato Marketing Board on 25th November, at which the supply position and market prospects for potatoes were fully discussed.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware of the developments which have occurred in recent years with regard to the development of aerosols and their use in connection with containers, particularly in the toilet field, and that the British export trade in goods which could be made up in aerosol containers is being severely handicapped by the present restrictions imposed on their use in this country by the high rate of Purchase Tax; and whether he will seek a report on this subject from his overseas advisory staff in other countries where aerosols are manufactured and where products made up in aerosol containers are sold in substantial quantities, with a view to ensuring that steps are taken in this country to see that we do not lag behind in connection with this development particularly so far as the export trade is concerned.

I am aware of the rapid increase in the manufacture of aerosols in this country. Questions on Purchase Tax should be addressed to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but we have received no evidence that the Purchase Tax on domestic sales has adversely affected exports.

asked the President of the Board of Trade which industries, in the course of their representations to him in regard to European Free Trade, have indicated that the present high rates of Purchase Tax will handicap them un duly if there is to be free competition with relevant European industries in so far as their competitors in Europe are not equally penalised by such high tax burdens; and what was the nature of his replies.

Manufacturers of motor cars, domestic refrigerators and fur garments are among those who have expressed concern about the effect of Purchase Tax on their competitive position in the European Free Trade Area. I referred them to the Chancellor of the Exchequer with my assurance that the Government have this point well in mind.

asked the Minister of Labour what steps he proposes to take to assist the workers made redundant by the uncertainty in the aircraft industry, created by Government policy, to secure alternative employment.

Whenever redundancies are reported my local officers endeavour to register workers requiring help in advance of discharge so that they can be submitted without delay to vacancies notified to my Department.

asked the Minister of Defence to what extent it is now the policy of the Government to use nuclear weapons, of any or all types, in reply to an act of aggression committed with conventional arms; and whether this policy applies only to Europe or to other parts of the world.

It would be wrong to define publicly in advance the circumstances in which these weapons would be used.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will reconsider the proposal to reduce the number of men in a turn-out on a fire-fighting appliance from five to three; and if he will make a statement.

I am not aware of any proposal to reduce the standard crew of a fire appliance to three. Standards of fire cover have recently been studied by a joint committee of the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Councils, for England and Wales and Scotland respectively. There was a divergence of opinion as to the appropriate standard of manning for fire appliances, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I are considering the matter in the light of the report and of the subsequent discussion in the two Advisory Councils. I am not at present able to make any further statement.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what encouragement is given to African farmers and smallholders in Tanganyika to grow sisal on a commercial basis.

None. Other crops more suited to small-scale farming give a quicker and better return and are therefore encouraged in preference to sisal.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what action he has taken, or proposes to take, to encourage the implementation of Resolution No. 140, passed by the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe at its October sitting, calling upon every European municipality to give the name Europe to some public square, thoroughfare or building.

I understand that this Resolution has yet to be considered by the Ministers' Deputies at Strasbourg; it would not be appropriate for me to comment at this stage.

asked the Postmaster-General why there were no letter cards available in some Edinburgh post offices on and about 2nd December, 1957; and if he will take steps to rectify the position.

I am sorry that exceptionally heavy demands have caused a temporary shortage of letter cards. Stocks at Edinburgh have now been replenished.