asked the Paymaster-General whether he will initiate legislation to oblige the National Coal Board to dispose of its assets, other than its freehold estate in its mines, by leasing mines or groups of mines to undertakings formed and operating upon a producers' co-operative basis.

No.

asked the Paymaster-General why there has been a shortage of domestic coal in Accrington and district in recent weeks and what steps are being taken to avoid a recurrence of this hardship.

I am making inquiries and will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Paymaster-General if he will increase the domestic coal allocation next winter for districts such as Accrington where weather conditions are often severe.

I am assured that the relative needs of different areas are and will continue to be taken fully into account by the House Coal Scheme in making their allocations.

asked the Minister of Supply what were the reasons which led him to intimate to the Bristol Aircraft Company that the Government would be unable to support financially the project for the production of the new and advanced Orion aeroplane engine; and what bearing this decision has upon the Government's policy regarding the future development of turbo-prop engines.

As to the first part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Bristol, Central (Mr. Awbery) on 26th February last. This decision does not represent any change in Government policy towards the development of turboprop engines generally.

asked the Minister of Supply if he will make a statement on the future of his Department's factory at Bowhouse, Hurlford, Ayrshire.

Except for some work on the breakdown of bombs for scrap, this agency factory has for some time past been on care and maintenance. Since there is no foreseeable prospect of any requirements which would need this specialised capacity, the recovery work is being transferred to the Royal Ordnance Factory, Bishopton, and the Bow-house factory will be closed. My right hon. Friends the Minister of Labour and the Secretary of State for Scotland have been informed and the premises will be offered for other uses.

asked the Minister of Supply what further orders it is proposed to place for the P.1 fighter for the Royal Air Force; and whether he will make a statement.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave today to the hon. Members for Macclesfield (Sir A. V. Harvey) and Barnsley (Mr. Mason).

asked the Minister of Health whether he is yet in a position to state the result of his Department's discussions with the British Medical Association about the provision to all private patients free of charge, other than the prescription charge, of a selected list of drugs; what would be the estimated cost of allowing these drugs to private patients; and whether consideration will be given to amending the National Health Service Act on these lines.

The discussions, which relate to the supply of all necessary drugs and not a selected list, and are of a purely exploratory nature, are still in progress. Any estimate of cost would be highly speculative because the number of private patients is not known.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the statement made to the Conference on the Law of the Sea by the legal adviser to the Foreign Office concerning the action likely to be taken by the major maritime Powers in the event of the adoption of a 12-mile limit, if he will make an ex parte statement to the Conference defining the areas in which Her Majesty's Government is prepared to accord legal recognition of fishing rights to British and foreign fishermen, respectively.

I have nothing to add to the answer which I gave this afternoon in reply to similar Questions.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many payments constituting what sums have now been received from the Hungarian Government under the Compensation Agreement for expropriated British property.

The following sums have so far been received by Her Majesty's Government from the Hungarian Government under the Agreement relating to the Settlement of Financial Matters of 27th June, 1956; £91,817 on 31st March, 1957; £36,433 on 31st March, 1958.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the amount of bacon that is coming into this country from Poland, Holland, Ireland, and Denmark, whether he will introduce a British bacon mark for home-produced bacon with the object that housewives may know when they are buying British bacon.

The Pig Industry Development Authority has been given powers which would enable it to establish a British bacon mark. I will call its attention to the hon. Member's Question.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the comparable figures of cost in agricultural subsidies and production grants for the years 1954–55, 1955–56, 1956–57 in accordance with the Annual Price Review; and how these compare with his estimates for 1958–59 bearing in mind the value of the £ as it stood in 1954 compared with its present value on the 1954 basis.

The cost of agricultural subsidies and production grants covered under the Annual Price Review was £191 million in 1954–55, £202 million in 1955–56, and £235 million in 1956–57. The comparable provision made in the Civil Estimates for 1958–59 amounts to £291 million, which is equivalent to £256 million at 1954 prices. This does not take account of the determination made after this year's Annual Review nor the subsequent reduction in the retail price of milk for five months this summer; the net effect of these is to reduce the estimated requirement by some £9 million.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to be in a position to announce his decision on the precise definition of the acreage limit for help under the proposed scheme for small farmers.

As my right hon. Friend has already indicated, the precise definition of those eligible is one of the matters on which we shall be consulting the interests concerned. I cannot forecast how long these consultations will take.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the Government's plans to compensate the British fishing industry for the losses inflicted on it by the extension of the territorial fishing limits of other nations which thereby curtail the waters in which British vessels have hitherto fished and may not in future fish.

Presumably the hon. and learned Member has in mind possible extensions of territorial fishing limits following the Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea. Any question of financial assistance cannot be considered until the effects of the results of the Geneva Conference are known.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what reports he has received that land has become infested with eelworm as a result of over-cropping in potatoes; in which counties eelworm has been most serious and widespread; and what advice has been given in the matter by the National Agricultural Advisory Service and the Potato Marketing Board.

The potato root eelworm is a well-known pest of potatoes; it is under constant study by the National Agricultural Advisory Service and the Ministry Plant Pathology Laboratory, and the results of systematic soil sampling are constantly adding to our knowledge. The areas most severely affected are South-West Lancashire, South-East Yorkshire, the Holland and Kesteven Divisions of Lincolnshire, the Soke of Peterborough and parts of Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire. My right hon. Friend has reason to believe that farmers are responding well to advice along the lines that the most effective method of control is by good husbandry and by proper rotational systems assisted by the soil sampling service provided by the National Agricultural Advisory Service. The Potato Marketing Board does not give advice on this subject.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what further steps he proposes to take to ensure that foot-and-mouth disease is not brought into the United Kingdom in meat imported from South America.

I am not in a position to add to the reply my right hon. Friend gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Mr. Hurd) on 31st March.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he will publish in HANSARD a table of figures showing the war disability pensions received by a war disabled pensioner on 1st April, 1951, to 1958, respectively; and taking the £ as having a purchasing value of 20s. at 1st April, 1951, what the relative purchasing value of these pensions would be in April of each of these years, in comparison with April, 1951, after allowing for the depreciation of the purchasing value of the £ sterling from April, 1951, to April, 1958.

Yes. The following are the figures:

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he will publish in HANSARD a table of figures showing the retirement pension received by a single person and married couple on 1st April, 1951, to 1st April, 1958, respectively; and, taking the £ as having a purchasing value of 20s. in April, 1951, what the relative purchasing value of these pensions would be on these dates, in comparison with April, 1951, after allowing for the depreciation of the purchasing value of the £ from April, 1951, to April, 1958.

Yes. The following are the figures:

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if he is aware that documents relating to the military service of the late Mr. Cross, killed in action on 11th October, 1914, have been mislaid by his Department; that this man was awarded the 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal, but owing to the mislaying of his papers his widow is not getting the over 70 years of age pension; and if he will see that this widow gets the full pension now owing.

I am afraid the hon. Member has misunderstood the position. Mrs. Cross is in receipt of a full war widow's pension. Her application for, in addition to this, a 10s. pension based on the old Contributory Pensions Acts was turned down in 1951 not because of the mislaying of any relevant papers but because the late Mr. Cross did not satisfy the conditions for such a pension. I am writing to the hon. Member with a full explanation of the case.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if he will provide approximate figures, for Great Britain at December, 1958, of the number of men aged 60 to 64 years, classified by insurance class, men aged 65 to 69 years, classified by insurance class and retirement status, women aged 60 to 64 years, classified by insurance class, civil status and retirement status, men aged 15 to 60 years, classified by insurance class, with separate figures also for students and trainees, and women aged 15 to 60 years, classified by insurance class and civil status, with separate figures also for students and trainees, who will not be paying the National Health Service contribution.

I am afraid that the information in respect of a future date is not available in the form in which the hon. Member requests it. If, however, he would care to discuss the matter with me I would gladly see whether it is possible to provide some of it in another form, and for earlier dates.

asked the Postmaster-General why he gave his consent to the advertising of a British dairy product controlled by a monopoly marketing board on the British Broadcasting Corporation's farming television programme on 17th April, 1958; and whether he will give similar consent under paragraph 14 of the Broadcasting Licence and Agreement to the advertisement of British agricultural products which are not controlled by State monopoly marketing boards.

No consent was given or required. The second part of the Question does not therefore arise.

asked the Postmaster-General what is the average daily weight of mail delivered to the House of Commons when Parliament is sitting.

450 lb. of letters and packets and 60 lb. of parcels.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation under what powers he intends to appoint his spot-check examiners for the roadworthiness of cars; how many such civilian detectives will be appointed, and when, and at what cost to the public; and if his examiners will be drawn from the existing establishment of his Department, or whether they will be new appointments from outside the Civil Service?

The powers are contained in Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act, 1956. Spot checking of vehicles on the road will be undertaken by our vehicle examiners. The present establishment will be augmented by 36 additional examiners to be appointed through the Civil Service Commission within the next few months. It is estimated that the total cost of operating the spot check scheme will be to the order of £45,000 in a full year.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will make a statement on the size of areas to be covered by examiners appointed through his Department as a result of Government policy on the roadworthiness of cars.

I do not intend to restrict the number of authorised examiners to be appointed in any one area. Any garage which applies and is found, on inspection, to be up to standard, will be appointed.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether he will give general directions to the British Transport Commission, the British Overseas Airways Corporation and the British European Airways Corporation, to publish complete commercial accounts of their finances during the past calendar year, showing full details of all moneys received and expended.

The forms of the accounts of all these bodies have been agreed by me. The information which the accounts for the last financial year will give will be full and comprehensive as in previous years.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether he is aware that schemes for a roundabout at the junction of Rothwell Road and Northfield Avenue in Kettering have been submitted to his Department before the war and at least four times subsequently and that the borough council and the Kettering Road Safety Committee both consider a roundabout as a necessary safety precaution; and whether he will now authorise work to proceed on the scheme last submitted.

The answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative. Even with the present road programme, however, it will take a considerable time to overtake the arrears of the past two decades and desirable as this scheme is, I am afraid that it will be some time before I can authorise the work.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will consider increasing the representation of rural Lincolnshire on the Transport Users' Consultative Committee for the East Midland area; and which of the members of this Council at present represent these interests.

The Transport Act, 1947, requires me to appoint to this Committee members representing agriculture, commerce, industry, shipping, labour and local authorities, for the area as a whole. This I have done. The Act does not provide for representation of particular parts of the area.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what has been the value of exports of pedigree cattle and sheep, respectively, from Scotland to Australia during each of the last three years.

My right hon. Friend regrets that he is unable to provide the information desired. No Scottish figures are available for the value of cattle exports to Australia. As far as sheep are concerned, importation into Australia from the United Kingdom has been prohibited since 1952 because of scrapie.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether he will reconsider the case of Wing Commander Hollingworth, of Ripon House, 24, Ripon Street, Lincoln, who, after more than 40 years' service in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, receives a total pension of only £263 per year; and whether he will make a statement.

This officer qualified for a pension in 1938 in respect of his service as an airman. The pension was increased in 1945 to take account of his reckonable wartime service as an officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. To have an entitlement to retired pay as an officer, an ex-airman pensioner must have been granted a permanent commission. This condition is not met in the present case. His post-war service was under civilian conditions and pension has been awarded in respect of it at civilian rates. Representations which he has made for the re-assessment of his pension have been very fully considered on a number of occasions and on each it has been confirmed that he has been correctly dealt with under the regulations which apply to him.

asked the Minister of Education if he is aware of the anxiety resulting from the decision of the council of the Toynbee Settlement to discontinue educational classes; and if he will make a statement.

I regret that the Settlement will no longer be able to make its distinctive contribution to the education service, but I understand that the Executive Committee has decided to discontinue this activity in order to concentrate on social work. The London County Council has, however, agreed to purchase the Settlement's education building, with its theatre which will be kept in use as a drama centre, and some of the evening classes, especially those in drama, will be continued there. Other classes can be provided more economically in other establishments in the areas already maintained by the Council, but it is hoped to preserve the associations made at Toynbee Hall by keeping those classes together as groups so far as possible with their existing tutors.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to state the estimated revenue for 1958–59 from Purchase Tax on all items charged at the 5 per cent. rate.

About £58 million.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will make a statement about the position of established civil servants who become redundant because of the closure or substantial reduction of defence establishments under the policy announced in the White Paper on Defence of 16th April, 1957.

Yes. To meet the exceptional circumstances certain new arrangements will be introduced at a very early date. These include provision, within the framework of the existing Superannuation Acts, for payments to be made in certain circumstances to established civil servants who become redundant in this way at their place of work and leave the Service. So far as industrial employees are concerned, the arrangements have, subject to certain reservations, been the subject of a recent agreement on the Joint Co-ordinating Committee for Government Industrial Establishments. The text of the agreement is reproduced below.The arrangements will also apply, as appropriate, to non-industrial civil servants in the defence and supply establishments concerned.JOINT CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department to which country the Spanish stowaway, Perez Selles, was permitted to migrate.

The deportation order made against Perez Selles required him to leave the United Kingdom and thereafter remain out of it. An alien against whom such an order has been made may go to any country willing to receive him. My latest information about Perez Selles is that he left Paris by air on 23rd March en route for Mexico via New York.