asked the Minister of Health why the identity of consultants who receive merit awards is kept secret; and whether he will consider the abolition of the present system.

The balance of advantage is against the general publication of the identity of the consultants in question. In regard to the second part of the Question, the Government's views on the merit award system itself have been given in evidence submitted to the Royal Commission on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration and it would be more appropriate if I defer further comment until the Royal Commission's Report is received.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in order to help ease the medical requirements of Commonwealth Territories and to expand the knowledge of tropical medicine and problems among members of the National Health Service, he will recommend the proleptic appointments of consultants so that they can do a tour of duty overseas before taking up such appointments.

I am advised that the National Health Service Acts do not permit me to do so and I am not convinced that what is proposed would achieve the object in mind. I am, however, considering various representations which have been made to me on the subject and will shortly write to my hon. Friend.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will make a statement on the production of transistor Medresco hearing aids; and whether he will give an estimate of the cost per unit.

There has been some technical difficulty in the large-scale manufacture of these aids, but production samples are now being tested. If these are acceptable deliveries of the aid will begin shortly. In regard to the second part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Barking (Mr. Hastings) on 10th March.

asked the Minister of Health what advice, apart from the Code of Practice formulated in 1956, is available to the staffs of X-ray departments in hospitals, whereby maximum protection against genetic and other hazards is afforded to both staff and patients.

Advice on this subject is available from the considerable volume of published scientific material, and from a number of expert organisations and individuals including those in charge of departments.

asked the Minister of Health to what extent it is now accepted that pelvic X-rays of pregnant women may lead to an excess of leukemia or malignant disease before the age of ten in the children born of these pregnancies; and what action is being taken to avoid this risk.

I understand that the possibility of a connection between X-ray exposure in the womb and leukaemia in childhood is being investigated but that no conclusions have yet been reached. As regards the last part of the Question I would refer the hon. Member to the Answer given to the hon. Member for Leicester, North-West (Mr. Janner) on 5th May.

asked the Minister of Health if he will announce the names of the members of the working party to examine the medical staffing structure of the hospitals.

Yes. As soon as the composition of the working party has been agreed, which I hope will be very shortly.

asked the Minister of Health what information he has as to the ages of three patients at Hammersmith Hospital upon whom successful hole-in-the-heart operations are reported to have been performed with the use of a heart-lung machine; what was the type of heart-lung machine used during the operations; and whether the patients were suffering from auricular or ventricular defects.

I am informed that the ages were 15, 19 and 38, that a British machine was used, and that all had multiple defects including ventricular septal defects in two cases.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many of the Suez Canal pilots have now been reinstated or found alternative employment; and what compensation has been paid to these pilots and others who lost their employment.

My right hon. Friend the Minister of Tranport and Civil Aviation, in his reply on 5th June last year, made it clear that the Suez Canal Company is responsible for any questions relating to the compensation of its former employees.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) whether he will make a statement on recent consultations with the United States Government with regard to the repeal of the McMahon Act;(2) what requests he has made of the Government of the United States of America that portions of the McMahon Act should be repealed; and what replies have been received.

No. Our interest in this matter is well known. The House will recall President Eisenhower's statement in the Declaration of Common Purpose of 25th October. The matter is now before Congress, and it would be quite inappropriate for Her Majesty's Government to seek to intervene.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the percentages of total United Kingdom supplies of mutton and lamb, beef, butter and cheese supplied by New Zealand last year compared with the immediate prewar period.

The figures are as follows: mutton and lamb, New Zealand provided 34 per cent. of our supplies pre-war compared with 46 per cent. last year; beef, 4 per cent. pre-war, 4 per cent. last year; butter, 26 per cent. prewar, 36 per cent. last year; cheese, 48 per cent. pre-war, 36 per cent. last year.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give consideration to the need for the general public to be better informed about farmers' problems and the necessity and reasons for farm subsidies; and if he will make arrangements for these to be given publicity by a Press campaign or other means.

I have the fullest sympathy with the object of my hon. Friend's Question.Whilst it may be primarily for the industry itself to see that the general public is better informed about farming and its problems, I can assure my hon. Friend that my colleagues and I take every opportunity of making more widely known the achievements of British agriculture, its place in the national economy, and the justification for the Government's policy of financial support.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will direct his Agricultural Publicity Service to draw farmers' attention to the risk of damage to railway-owned grain sacks by leaving them on the fields to dry the contents after combine harvesting, and the increase in hire charges this practice leads to.

I think this is a matter we can leave to British Railways and the farmer. But I have no evidence that the practice referred to is widespread.My Department's Bulletin on Farm Grain Drying and Storage mentions that there are obvious disadvantages in leaving corn out in bags when a long spell of wet weather is expected.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, the extent of the recent representations made to him concerning the hardship of widows in receipt of the 10s. widow's pension; and to what extent he has now reconsidered his decision regarding amending the Regulations to provide a full pension when widows attain the age of 50 years.

Representations to my right hon. Friend on this subject have been appreciably fewer than they were some years ago, and I have no reason to doubt that the changes made since 1956 on the recommendation of the National Insurance Advisory Committee have fulfilled that body's hope that they would deal with the obvious cases of real hardship among these widows. As regards the second part of the Question I have nothing to add to what my right hon. Friend told the hon. Member for Perry Barr (Mr. C. Howell) on 3rd February.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether he will draw attention in any future edition of "Everybody's Guide to National Insurance" to the different contributory conditions necessary to qualify for increments by insured persons remaining in employment after attaining the minimum retirement age from those obtaining in respect of other benefits under the National Insurance Act in that only weeks during which the insured person is employed qualify for increment and periods lost by reason of sickness or other causes have no such effect.

The statement in the Guide that the pension is increased for contributions which are paid for weeks of employ- ment or self-employment is clear and the more detailed leaflet sent to everyone approaching pension age adds specifically that weeks of unemployment or sickness do not count. My right hon. Friend will, however, see whether it is possible to bring out this point even more clearly in the Guide when it is shortly reprinted.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance (1) how much money has been drawn in the form of unemployment benefit during the past three years from any convenient date by aliens and British subjects who are not citizens of the United Kingdom who first arrived in this country and entered into insurance during the past three years;(2) how many aliens and British subjects who are not citizens of the United Kingdom who arrived in this country during the past three and a half years from any convenient date have at some period been in receipt of unemployment benefit.

I regret that this information is not available. My hon. and gallant Friend will, however, be aware that aliens and British visitors alike are not entitled to any of the benefits of the National Insurance Scheme until they have satisfied the contributory conditions of the scheme. In the case of unemployment benefit that means that a visitor from abroad cannot qualify for any benefit unless he has been employed and contributed here for at least 26 weeks, and that the length of time that he can claim this benefit depends to some extent upon the length of time during which he has contributed. These provisions do not, of course, apply to people coming from a country with which we have a reciprocal agreement which treats residence or contributions in that country as equivalent to contributions here.

asked the Paymaster-General whether he will give a general direction to the National Coal Board that, in importing raw materials and particularly pit props, it should deal only with British shipping companies.

asked the Paymaster-General what general directions he has given to the National Coal Board regarding the nationality of shipping chartered by it for the conveyance of pit props into this country.

My noble Friend has given no such direction and does not propose to do so. Flag discrimination would be contrary to the country's traditional shipping policy.

asked the Paymaster-General how many of the 4,000 Hungarian miners who were specially selected by the National Coal Board to work in British mines, and were paid £8 a week for many weeks during their training, are now working in the mines: and what was the total cost of the whole scheme.

There are 659 in the mines and 250 in associated activities. The cost of the scheme is in the first place a matter for the National Coal Board.

asked the Paymaster-General the total retail cost of a year's maximum ration of 50 cwt. of Group 3 coal at Tyne ports and of a year's maximum ration of 34 cwt. at Cornish ports, respectively.

The cost is £18 6s. 10½d. at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and £16 14s. 7d. at Falmouth, Newquay, Penzance and St. Ives.

asked the Minister of Supply whether he is aware that British aircraft development is approaching the point of producing helicopter machines capable of economic inter-city transport, and that urgent and adequate assistance now could give Great Britain the lead also in this development; and whether he is prepared to investigate the position with a view to Government support and encouragement.

I am fully aware of the interesting position to which the right hon. Gentleman refers, because my Department has a large measure of responsibility for having created it. I have indicated to the companies concerned with the development of the most advanced aeroplane in this field, the Fairey Rotodyne, that the Government are prepared to continue to support and contribute to its further development. I am awaiting financial proposals from the companies which will no doubt reflect their commercial judgment of the opportunities that lie before the aeroplane.

asked the Minister of Supply what rates of payment he makes to employees of his Department while they are attending college or university as part of a sandwich course.

The payment made to non-industrial employees of the Ministry attending sandwich courses is the normal salary appropriate to rank and age. Apprentices receive rates of pay negotiated with the trades unions and, in certain circumstances, an allowance if they have to live away from home. In addition, tuition and examination fees and travelling expenses are paid by the Ministry.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the spheres of education in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland for which the territorial Governments and Her Majesty's Government are responsible.

The Governments of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland are responsible for all education of Africans up to secondary education at VIth form level, including schools for training African teachers, and African trades schools and additionally, for African adult education, as distinct from higher education.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what action is being taken to prepare a register of electors on the basis of adult suffrage in Mauritius.

The arrangements for the next elections to the Mauritius Legislative Council, including the preparation of a register of electors, will be made under local legislation shortly to be considered by Ministers for enactment during the first part of the current Session. They will be supervised by an electoral commissioner, whom the Governor is anxious to appoint as soon as possible.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what protests he has received from the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers concerning soil pipes being laid inside council houses in Cardiff; what reply he has made; and what action he has taken by circular or otherwise in view of the threat to health involved in this practice.

I cannot trace having received any protests about this from the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers. Cardiff City Council, in common with many other authorities, has been using the modern single pipe system for about five years, and there have been no complaints to me.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether he will make a statement on the nature and progress of his Department's catering experiment involving directly employed civilians, civilian contractors and the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes.

The object of the experiment is to find out whether catering, cooking and mess service could be improved, or done more economically, if we changed over to wholly civilian staffs; placed contracts with catering firms; or handed the work over to N.A.A.F.I. Trials are in hand at three stations. At the first of these the replacement of airmen by civilians is virtually complete. At the second a contract for all messing has now been placed with a civilian firm who will take over in August. We hope that N.A.A.F.I. will take over at the third station at or about the same time.

asked the Postmaster-General the average cost of providing a telephone kiosk in a city area, a residential area, and a country district, respectively; and the average receipts from kiosks in these respective area.

Separate figures for city areas are not available. The figures for urban areas and country districts are:

asked the Postmaster-General the highest figure a telephone kiosk has cost to install; and the receipts from it.

It cost about £5,000 in one case and the annual income is around £6.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation when he expects to publish the draft order showing his proposals to construct a roundabout and new road layout at Grendon in the County of Warwick.

Next month.