asked the Minister of Works if the contract placed with Hoover Limited for electric cleaners was put out to tender; and to which firms was the inquiry sent.

The contract was let by tender. A number of firms submitted tenders and Hoover Ltd. were awarded the contract.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, how far the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is carrying out any research to combat the growing immunity of many insect pests to the newer chemical insecticides.

The Pest Infestation Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is carrying out intensive research—using biochemical and radioactive tracer techniques—to determine the physiological factors responsible for this ability to acquire resistance to insecticides. This work is being done in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will indicate the number of overspill agreements which have been submitted to him by Scottish local authorities under the Housing and Town Development (Scotland) Act, 1957.

Although no agreements have yet been submitted for formal approval, negotiations between Glasgow Corporation and certain authorities for the conclusion of such agreements are at an advanced stage.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will indicate the extent and nature of the obstacles which prevent him designating another new town to deal with Glasgow's overspill problem.

The designation of a further new town to deal with Glasgow's overspill problem is impracticable in the present limitations of financial and technical resources.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, taking the internal purchasing value of the £ sterling at 20s. in October, 1951, it had declined to 19s. 5d. in January, 1952, to 18s. 4d. in January, 1954, and 16s. 10d. in January, 1956; and what was the comparable figure for January, 1958.

Yes, 15s. 6d.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury what progress has been made with the university building projects designed to provide for the increase of 106,000 in the number of university students by the mid-1960s.

I would refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's statement of 20th February regarding the increased number of students now expected in the 1960s and the building programmes for the years 1960–63 which have been provisionally approved.Good progress has been made with buildings included in earlier programmes and with the planning of buildings which are to be started in 1958 and 1959.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of his statement that a mirror used in a budgerigar cage is liable to Purchase Tax at 60 per cent. but that the Notes issued by Customs and Excise indicate that where other features are incorporated so as to identify the article as a plaything for a caged bird, the item is only subject to tax at 30 per cent., he will state what arrangements exist for deciding the line of demarcation and how many Customs and Excise officers have qualified to give such a decision.

This distinction causes no difficulties in practice. Customs and Excise staff apply their common sense.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs by what amount the gross expenditure of local authorities has increased between the years 1951–52 and 1956–57; and what amount this is expressed in percentage.

Gross expenditure of local authorities on revenue account—including special funds and revenue moneys used for capital purposes—rose from £988 million in 1951–52 to £1,477 million in 1956–57, an increase of 49 per cent. The corresponding figures for capital account are £426 million, £560 million and 31 per cent. The amounts for 1956–57 are estimates.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many local authorities in the County of Northumberland have decided to abandon house-building projects since the receipt of Circular 54/57; how many have decided to concentrate on slum clearance; and how many are working on a modified house building programme.

Of the 28 local authorities in Northumberland, 9 have been in touch with me on the matters raised in Circular 54/57. Of these, one authority has indicated that it will put no houses into contract for the time being. The remainder intend that the houses they are placing in contract shall be used primarily for slum clearance and the housing of old people.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what suggestions he has made to local authorities by which they can help older people, who have occupied their homes for 25 years and paid more than the value of the house in rent, who have been given notice to quit; and what help he will give to these tenants apart from advising them to seek professional advice and to try and negotiate with their landlords when they are unable to find alternative accommodation.

My suggestions to local authorities are set out in a Circular, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.Meanwhile I would urge tenants not to be frightened by wild and alarmist predictions, and to remember that they have still several months in which to make arrangements.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether he is aware that the Rent Act, 1957, is causing hardship and difficulties to many thousands of tenants, and that many of these tenants are under a misapprehension concerning their rights under this Act; and whether he will arrange to make a radio and television broadcast, giving a factual Ministerial explanation of the workings of this Act.

Many explanations of the provisions of the Act have already been given in newspapers and on the radio and on television, and I understand that further broadcasts are being arranged. Nearly a million and a quarter copies of the booklet "The Rent Act and You" have been sold. Many local authorities have been giving information about the provisions of the Act, while anyone who needs guidance on a particular problem can ask the local citizens' advice bureau, which may also be able to arrange legal advice for those who really need it and cannot pay for it.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) what arrangements have been made to establish a resettlement bureau or to assist the re-employment in any other way of those officers of the western and eastern regions of Nigeria, who are retiring under the arrangements effective on self-government;(2) what plans exist for assisting those officers of the western and eastern regions of Nigeria, who are retiring, in the same way as Malayan officers, who are retiring, are being assisted.

The conditions under which officers in Western and Eastern Nigeria may elect to retire are dissimilar from those affecting retirement in Malaya and no special arrangements have been made to assist them, but the possibility of an extension of the functions of the Malayan Services Resettlement Bureau to cover officers from other territories is at present under consideration.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what types of picketing are affected by the provisions of the Penal Code (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance, 1957, in Northern Rhodesia; why it has been considered necessary to impose higher penalties than those operating under the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance, 1949; and why the consent of the Attorney-General will not be required for prosecutions under the new ordinance.

The Penal Code Ordinance provides inter alia that every person who wrongfully and without legal authority watches or besets

"(a) any premises or the approaches to such premises with a view to preventing any other person from doing any act which such other person has a legal right to do thereat; or

(b) the house or other place where any other person resides or works or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approaches to such house or place with a view to preventing such other person from doing or compelling him to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing;"

shall be guilty of an offence.The penalty for unlawful picketing introduced in the Penal Code in 1954 has not been changed—that is, a fine not exceeding £100 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months. The penalty for intimidation or annoyance under the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance was a fine not exceeding £20 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months. This was considered to be out of line with the penalty for unlawful picketing, and the opportunity was therefore taken with the transfer of the relevant provision to the Penal Code to bring it into line, so that the penalty is now a fine not exceeding £100 or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months. The requirement in the unlawful picketing provision already in the Penal Code that no person should be prosecuted without the written consent of the Attorney-General proved too cumbersome. It has been dropped in view of the safeguard for the rights of the individual transferred from the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance that only persons who picket "wrongfully and without legal authority" are guilty of an offence.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make an announcement about the Report of the Mauritius Electoral Boundary Commission.

I have placed in the Library of the House copies of the Commission's Report together with a letter which I have sent to the Chairman of the Commission and a Dispatch which I have sent to the Governor.The Commission has recommended that elections should be held in 40 single-member constituencies. It did so on the understanding that, in order to ensure that the agreed principles underlying the London Agreement shall be put into practice, I gave them a certain assurance. This is that the Governor will so use his power of appointment to the Legislative Council—so long as he does not thereby frustrate the election results—that, as finally constituted, it contains representatives of the main sections of opinion in numbers as nearly proportionate as possible to their numbers in the population as a whole. I have gladly given this assurance and accepted the recommendation of the Commission. I am sure that this electoral system will give the people of Mauritius the best possible chance of good and stable government in the future.I am most grateful to Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve and his colleagues for their very lucid and valuable Report.

asked the Minister of Defence how far, in the reports which have reached him from Admiral Strauss of the United States Atomic Energy Commission regarding crashed nuclear armed bombers, information was given as to why it had been essential to jettison nuclear bombs in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans when a collision or a landing accident was feared; and if he will make a statement.

I have nothing to add to previous statements on this subject.

asked the Paymaster-General when he expects to be in a position to make a statement about the outcome of the inquiry into the proposal to site a nuclear power station in the Snowdon National Park.

Soon after Easter.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation which maritime nations have in force regulations making radar training compulsory for a certificate of competency for ships' officers.

The Government of Australia, New Zealand, India and the Irish Republic have imposed requirements, similar to those in force in the United Kingdom, that no new certificate of competency as second mate (foreign-going) should be issued unless the candidate also holds a radar observer's certificate. I understand that other Common? wealth Governments have the matter under active consideration. So far as I am aware no foreign Governments have yet introduced comparable requirements.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether his attention has been drawn to the Annual Report for 1957 of the Liverpool Underwriters Association urging early agreement between maritime nations to make radar training a compulsory requirement for ships' officers; and what proposals he has in mind for effecting such an agreement.

I have already notified Commonwealth Governments of the United Kingdom requirement and a number of them have introduced similar provisions. I am now drawing the attention of other maritime nations to our action and I hope that this will lead to a greater appreciation of the need for such a requirement.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation to what extent the reduction in the price of fuel has been reflected in reduced public transport charges.

The recent reduction in the price of oil and petrol is I understand too small a proportion of the total expenditure of transport undertakings to be reflected in the charges made to the public.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations what new methods he is contemplating to give effect to the hopes expressed in Australia and New Zealand that a high proportion of emigrants to those two countries shall be of British stock.

Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom already co-operate with Her Majesty's Governments in Australia and New Zealand in facilitating emigration from this country to Australia and New Zealand. My hon. Friend will be aware of the assistance to emigration to Australia which is given through the United Kingdom contribution under the Australian Assisted Passage Agreement and by agreements with voluntary organisations concerned with child migration. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister was able, while in Canberra, to sign a further agreement with the Australian Government on Social Security, which will enable emigrants from this country to Australia to qualify for Australian old age benefits and other social security benefits by virtue of their residence in this country.Certain further suggestions made to my right hon. Friend while he was in Australia are at present being studied. As for New Zealand nearly 90 per cent. of the immigrants were, in 1956, of British stock.

asked the Secretary of State for War the number of men entering into six and nine years' engagements from civilian life in the months of October, November, December, 1957, and January, 1958, separate figures being shown for each month.

The six-year engagements for each of these months were 477, 812, 656 and 1,288 respectively. The nine-year engagements were 150, 189, 185 and 317. These are direct engagements from civil life and take no account of internal recruiting.

asked the Secretary of State for War (1) what special action was authorised by him so that full information about the January, 1958, recruiting figures was available in the early part of February, 1958; and whether such arrangements will be continued so that monthly recruiting figures will in future always be available within the first half of the following month;(2) why information about recruiting given in Paragraph 60 of his Army Estimates Memorandum, 1958–59, contained figures based on information from Army commands of such an unreliable character that it is not normally released to the Press.

Monthly recruiting figures are not published until returns have been received from abroad and all the figures have been thoroughly checked. Special action was taken to hasten this process in respect of the recruiting figures for January so that the Defence White Paper and my Memorandum on the Army Estimates could be based on the latest possible information.This entailed additional work beyond what is justified in the normal monthly publication of figures and I cannot undertake to alter the present arrangements in this respect.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will endeavour, in this year's Price Review, to pursue a policy which will enable the farming community to retain a greater share of the reward from its own increased efficiency, the real income of farmers having fallen substantially in recent years although that of the community as a whole has risen.

While I must not be taken as accepting all the implication of my hon. Friend's Question, I can assure him that all the relevant factors will be taken fully into account in the annual review of the economic condition and prospects of the agricultural industry which is now in progress; but I must not anticipate the decisions to be taken in the light of it.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement about the reforms recommended by the political residents in the Persian Gulf States, and the progress made in the last five years towards the realisation there of improvements in the constitutional, political, social and economic fields.

No. It would not be in the public interest for me to reveal confidential communications made by Her Majesty's representatives to the Rulers of the Persian Gulf States. Nor, in view of their complete independence in internal matters, would it be proper for me to comment here on the considerable advances which have been made in those Slates during recent years.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to what extent Her Majesty's Government were associated with the talks which took place in Cairo in December about the Nile waters; and whether plans are yet complete for the summoning of the conference of users of the waters.

Her Majesty's Government were not associated with the talks which took place in Cairo in December about the Nile waters. Her Majesty's Government are not aware that any plans for the summoning of a conference of the users of the waters are yet complete.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the powers conferred on police officers under the Trucial States Special Police Officers Regulations, 1957, confer power to arrest a person against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received; and if he will make a statement.

The Trucial States Special Police Officers Regulation, 1957, empowers Her Majesty's Political Agent, Trucial States, to appoint special police officers as necessary for the preservation of peace and good order among persons subject to Her Majesty's jurisdiction in the Trucial States. Article 14 (a) of the Regulation confers on these special police officers power to arrest without warrant

"any person who has been concerned in any offence punishable with death or imprisonment exceeding three years or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received or a reasonable suspicion exists of his having been so concerned."

The power has been conferred because it would involve unacceptable delays if no arrest could be made in these cases until a warrant had been obtained from Her Majesty's Court for the Trucial States. Articles 16 and 17 of the Regulation limit the period for which a person arrested without a warrant may be detained in custody before being brought before the Court.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps are being considered by Her Majesty's Government to co-operate with the Secretary-General of the United Nations in accordance with the resolution on freedom of information of 11th December, 1957, to organise seminars on freedom of information under the programme of advisory services in the field of human rights.

In the first instance it will be for the Secretary-General of the United Nations to consider to what extent, and in what regions, seminars on this subject might usefully be organised within the limited resources available for the programme of advisory services in the field of human rights. Any approach by the Secretary-General to Her Majesty's Government on this subject would, of course, receive careful consideration.

asked the Minister of Health, as representing the Lord President of the Council, to what extent the Medical Research Council has investigated the effects of diesel oil fumes upon the public health; and what conclusions were arrived at.

Investigations conducted by the Medical Research Council on groups of persons especially exposed to fumes from diesel engines have demontrated no immediate or long-term effects on health. Sampling of the atmosphere shows that diesel fumes contribute little to the total atmospheric pollution. These studies are continuing, together with research on the nature of the constituents of diesel exhaust fumes under different running conditions, both experimentally and in the field.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when it is intended to discontinue or to reduce the 6d. surcharge on taxi fares, in view of the fall in fuel prices.

I have recently received, and am now considering, an interim report from the accountant whom I invited to make an investigation into the trading results and operating costs of the London taxi-cab trade. The price of fuel is one only of the factors that must be taken into account.

asked the Minister of Labour how many males and females, respectively, were totally unemployed at the West Fife exchanges on the latest date for which figures are available; and how many unfilled vacancies there were on the same date.

At 13th January, there were 612 males and 1,432 females registered as wholly unemployed at the Dunfermline Cowdenbeath, Leslie, Inver-keithing, Kirkcaldy and Burntisland Employment Exchanges. The numbers of vacancies notified to those Exchanges, remaining unfilled at 8th January, were 398 for males and 159 for females.

asked the Minister of Labour what special steps he proposes taking in the Littlehampton area of West Sussex to ensure suitable local employment for those persons who will be thrown out of work as a result of the liquidation of Royal Naval Air Station, Ford.

My local officers are in touch with the Naval authorities and arrangements will be made for workers to be registered for alternative employment before they leave.

asked the Postmaster-General what representations he has received about the inadequacy of the postal, telegraph and telephone facilities in the new town of East Kilbride, which now has a population of more than 20,000.

The Development Corporation is pressing for the early provision of a Crown Post Office. It is hoped to make a start on the building in the autumn at the latest; in the meantime urgent consideration is being given to the provision of a temporary building. A new telephone exchange will be opened in April, when most of those wanting telephone service will be connected.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will reconsider the rates of duty on imported lettuce and give particular consideration to raising the rate for the period from 1st March to 31st May, which is at present held by home growers to be inadequate.

The Board of Trade announced on 12th February that it had received an application for an increase in the import duty on lettuce and endive during the period 1st March to 31st May, and invited representations from interested parties. This application is under consideration.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what steps he is taking to attract further light industries to the City of Aberdeen.

I would refer the hon. and learned Member to the Answer given to his Question on 19th February.