asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many local authorities are making arrangements to test their water supply regularly for radioactivity.

Local authorities and other statutory water undertakers do not need my right hon. Friend's permission to test their water for radioactivity. To my knowledge, however, at least eight of them have made, or contemplate making, such arrangements.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many appeals from decisions of the Caterham and Warlingham Council, in its capacity as the planning authority under the Town and Country Planning Acts, have been allowed by him during the last five years, stating the number allowed in each of the five years, respectively.

Thirty appeals against decisions issued by the Caterham and Warlingham Urban District Council were allowed wholly or in part during the five years 1953 to 1957 and two others during the first half of 1958. The numbers year by year were:

1953	1954	1955	1956	1957
5	5	8	6	6

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that the similarity between £5 and £1 notes leads to mistakes and losses; and whether he will consult with the Bank of England with a view to their issuing a £5 note with serrated edges or other distinguishing features to help the public.

This matter has been exhaustively discussed in previous Questions and Answers and in an Adjournment Debate on 24th February last and I have nothing further to add.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) why, in view of his recent removal of credit restriction, and in view of the fact that the Government have complete control of the volume of capital works undertaken by local authorities, he still retains such high rates of interest for loans from the Public Works Loan Board;(2) why, in his recent downward revision of interest rates on loans from the Public Works Loan Board, he retained the same rate of interest for loans of 15 years and over; and, in view of the fact that the great majority of house mortgage advances are for periods over 15 years, if he will now reduce the interest rate for loans for this period.

The rates of interest on local loans are kept broadly in line with the rates at which local authorities can borrow in the market. Recently it became appropriate to reduce the rates for loans up to 15 years, but not the long-term rate, in order to maintain this broad parity. The purpose for which loans are raised is not relevant to the rates of interest, but these are constantly under review and will be revised again when necessary.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the practice by which tenants of houses owned by private firms have been invited by these firms to quit their homes to enable extension of the firms' premises, and have been encouraged to do so by being offered the tenancy of alternative houses, but on taking up such new tenancy have found that their new rent books have been endorsed as decontrolled; and whether he will introduce legislation to prohibit this practice.

I am not aware of this practice. If it does exist, the remedy is not legislation but awareness by tenants of their position. They should realise that a new letting of a controlled house is normally free of control. This is made clear in Q. and A.61 in the booklet "The Rent Act and You", of which more than 1¼ million copies have been sold. Before agreeing to give up a controlled tenancy, a tenant should make sure that he has a new agreement providing for adequate security of tenure. If in doubt, he should seek advice from a solicitor or Citizens' Advice Bureau.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will introduce legislation to amend the Housing Act, 1957, to enable him to require local housing authorities to furnish him with periodical returns of the number of people on their housing lists, specifying, in particular, the length of time each person's name has been on these lists, and distinguishing between white and coloured applicants.

I do not think that to collect this information would be useful.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many freehold houses or freehold sites for houses have been sold by the Basildon Development Corporation for each year since 1948.

The Corporation sold one freehold site for a house in 1954 and one in 1956, two freehold houses in 1957 and one in 1958. It now has in mind the freehold sale of a number of acres for private development.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what progress has been made with the pilot cane farming scheme introduced in 1956 at Wales Estate in British Guiana.

Fifty-seven tenant farmers have been settled in the new village on plots of approximately 15 acres each, and have been provided with a house and vegetable garden at a small rental. They have been given guidance in agricultural methods and have already produced crops of reasonable quality, but it is too soon yet to say whether the pilot scheme will be economically successful.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what communication, or reply, he has received from the Sultan of Lahej in respect of charges made against him.

None.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will give special attention to the need for road construction in the island of Dominica.

I warmly support the Dominica Government in giving high priority to roads in allocating their development funds. Colonial Development and Welfare funds have borne most of the cost of three major roads and my right hon. Friend is considering with the Governor of the Windward Islands how a fourth can be financed.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies when the Turkish Cypriot organisation Volkan first engaged in violence; for how long it has advocated violence; and what proposals he has for declaring it illegal.

Volkan ceased to exist about a year ago. If the hon. Member is referring to the Turkish Cypriot organisation known as T.M.T., its first known murder was 24th May. Previously its activities were mainly concerned with the distribution of leaflets. On the last part of the Question I have nothing to add to the reply given to the hon. Member on 15th July.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what organisations will be invited to send representatives to the Nigerian Constitutional Conference in September; and what provision will be made for the representation of minorities.

The Conference will be a resumption of the 1957 Conference, at which all shades of political opinion in Nigeria, including minority opinion, were represented.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what schemes there are for municipal housing in the Bahamas; and what rents are paid.

, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 1st May, 1958; Vol. 587, c. 56], supplied the following information:There are at present no schemes in the Bahamas for municipal housing but the House of Assembly has set up a Select Committee to consider the question of a public housing scheme and the removal of slum areas. Efforts are being made to establish a Building Society in the Colony by private enterprise with Government encouragement, and there is good reason to believe that such a society will shortly be set up on a fairly large scale. A town planning officer has been appointed whose duties will include the question of zoning any new projects.

asked the Minister of Works whether the temporary awning to protect the queue at the Jewel House in the Tower of London is now functioning.

I hope to have the awning in position by the end of the month.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) upon what basis he plans, in his proposed scheme for compensating the victims of crimes of violence in Scotland, to assess the compensation payable on the one hand, to the dependants of a murdered breadwinner and, on the other hand, to a maimed victim;(2) if he will, for the latest convenient period, state, in relation to the compensating of victims of crimes of violence in Scotland, the estimated annual and capital cost of National Insurance payments now made, and the estimated annual and capital cost of compensation similar to the Industrial Injuries Scheme.

As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary informed the hon. and learned Member on 10th July, proposals for compensating the victims of crimes of violence are at present being studied, but no statement of Government policy can yet be made.On the basis then mentioned by my right hon. Friend, and on the information available to me, the best estimates I can make are that the total National Insurance payments for which victims and their families were eligible in 1956 were of the order of £5,000, and that the cost of compensation under a funded scheme would have been of the order of £20,000.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he is taking to speed up the starting date of building operations on the Dundee Trades College; how long the building operations are expected to last; and how many building workers they are likely to employ.

I have instructed my School Building Development Team, which is designing the College on the invitation of Dundee Education Authority to press on with its task so that building operations may be started as soon as practicable. These operations are expected to last about three and a half years, and for most of that period should employ between 150 and 200 building workers.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will postpone the proposed rent increases in respect of houses in Dundee owned by the Scottish Special Housing Association, in view of the high incidence of local unemployment and of the fact that these houses already attract the highest level of public authority houses in the city.

No. I have approved these increases as being reasonable in amount, and have authorised the operation of a rent rebate scheme to prevent hardship in individual cases.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland when his Department intends to reply to the letter written by the County Clerk of Ross and Cromarty on 29th May regarding grants for minor roads under the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897.

A reply was sent on 18th July. I am sending a copy to the hon. Member.

asked the Lord Advocate why a plea of guilty to culpable homicide was accepted when the original charge against William Jordan was that of capital murder.

A plea of guilty to culpable homicide was accepted because Crown Counsel were satisfied on the evidence in their possession, in particular the medical evidence regarding the mental condition of the accused, that at the time of the offence he was suffering from diminished responsibility.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has received for the removal of the import duty on sulphate of ammonia; and what action he proposes.

An application from users for removal of the duty has been received and is under consideration.

asked the President of the Board of Trade why it has been decided that duty of £100 must be paid on the import of an ultra-microtome from Sweden, needed for research into sclerosis; whether he has taken note of the fact that half the import cost is being borne by the Medical Research Council; and upon what medical advice the decision to impose the import duty was based.

This instrument is subject to Key Industry Duty, and there is power to remit duty only if similar goods are not for the time being made in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. I am advised that a similar instrument is procurable in the United Kingdom. The case, therefore, does not qualify for remission of duty.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will now relax the present restrictions on hire purchase, in view of recent relaxations in credit restrictions.

As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in the House on 3rd July, the relaxations to which the hon. Member refers do not extend to the direct controls over hire purchase. My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade is, however, keeping these under review.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that the existing law concerning weights and measures is difficult to interpret and uneven in its operation, especially where retail traders are concerned; and if he will introduce as soon as possible amending legislation to implement such of the recommendations of the Hodgson Committee as are still relevant and to correct such further anomalies as have become apparent since the Committee presented its Report.

Yes. Legislation will be introduced when Parliamentary time permits.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will make a statement on the progress being made by the Royal Commission on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the Answer given on 14th July to a Question by the hon. Member for St. Pancras, North (Mr. K. Robinson).

asked the Minister of Health if he will give in tabular form the total amount received by his Department from the City of Stoke-on-Trent since July, 1948, for the Hospital Endowment Fund, indicating the individual sources and amounts from each source, also the total amount allocated to the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board, and the total amount received since 1948 by the Stoke Hospital Management Committee.

The amounts received by my Department from hospitals within the Stoke-on-Trent City area since the 4th July, 1948, for the Hospital Endowments Fund were as follows:

	£
Source of income.
Stoke-on-Trent County Borough Council in respect of:
The City General Hospital	403
Bagnall Hospital	441
Former voluntary Hospitals:
North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary	112,666
The Orthopaedic Hospital	27,438
Longton Hospital	29,189
Burslem, Haywood and Tunstall War Memorial Hospital	26,222
Total	196,359

In addition securities and cash amounting in total to £66,682 were received for the Hospital Endowments Fund from hospitals which were outside the Stoke-on-Trent City area but which came under the control of the Stoke-on-Trent Hospital Management Committee.The above sums formed part of the gross Hospital Endowments Fund, amounting to some £31,000,000, of which about £11,000,000 was used to defray certain liabilities transferred to the Minister under the National Health Service Act, 1946, leaving about £20,000,000 which constituted the net Hospital Endowments Fund.The total amount earmarked to the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board as its share of the capital in the net Fund is £903,683. In addition, an amount of £65,374 is earmarked to the Stoke-on-Trent Hospital Management Committee.The amount received since July, 1948, by the Stoke-on-Trent Hospital Management Committee as its share of the income of the net Fund is £21,155, together with a further £14,339 paid over by the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board from its share of such income.

asked the Minister of Health the number of working days lost through illness amongst the hospital service employees in Wales and the total amount of sick pay involved during the last twelve months for which figures are available.

I regret that the information requested is not available.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will indicate in a table, for each financial year since the inception of the National Health Service, the total capital and revenue expenditure, actual and estimated, per head of the estimated population for the areas covered by the Stoke-on-Trent and Salford Hospital Management Committees.

The area covered by a particular hospital management committee is not necessarily a defined geographical area; any estimate therefore—especially in a densely populated urban area—of the population served by the hospitals in a group, is subject to a wide margin of error. With that reservation,

Year			Stoke-on-Trent H.M.C.					Salford H.M.C.
			Capital Expenditure		Revenue Expenditure			Capital Expenditure		Revenue Expenditure
			s.	d.	£	s.	d.	s.	d.	£	s.	d.
1949–50	…	…		8	2	7	7	1	10	3	10	10
1950–51	…	…		2	2	9	9	2	3	3	12	4
1951–52	…	…		5	2	13	1	3	3	3	19	6
1952–53	…	…		6	2	17	8	2	7	4	5	0
1953–54	…	…		10	3	0	0	1	3	4	10	1
1954–55	…	…		10	3	3	4	1	8	4	12	3
1955–56	…	…		6	3	7	10	1	3	5	2	2
1956–57	…	…		2	3	15	6	1	4	5	12	5
1957–58 (provisional)	…	…		10	4	0	3	4	8	5	18	6
1958–59 (estimated)	…	…	3	3	4	1	5	5	9	5	18	8

asked the Minister of Defence what estimate he made, before British military action was taken in the Middle East, of the increased Government expenditure that would be incurred.

None.

asked the Paymaster-General from what date the allocation of industrial coal supplies will cease.

The National Coal Board plans to negotiate new commercial contracts with each individual buyer in turn over a period beginning 1st October, 1958, and to get all supplies covered by such contracts by the beginning of next May. Until a new contract is agreed with any one buyer, supplies to him will continue to be made under the existing contract, which is based on the present allocation and is "until further notice".

asked the Paymaster-General the average annual excess of income over expenditure in the fund of the mineworkers' pension scheme since its inception; and what is now the value of the scheme's assets.

According to the Fund Accounts, the average annual excess of income over expenditure has been £6·3 million. Included in the income are deficiency contributions by the National Coal Board which are now at a rate exceeding £4 million per annum and are at present expected to continue at this rate for about 35 years.The amount of the Fund according to the balance sheet as at 5th April, 1958 was £39·8 million. This Fund, together with the Board's future deficiency contributions, the value of which is about £86 million, constitute the assets of the Scheme, and all of these are required in order to meet the net liability for future benefits at the present rates.

asked the Minister of Labour how much short-time working and unemployment there was in Lincoln on 1st July or the most recent convenient date; and whether he will make a statement on the steps being taken to alleviate the situation.

On 16th June, 1958, the latest date for which statistics are available, 719 persons were registered as wholly unemployed at the Lincoln Employment Exchange and 1,931 as temporarily stopped. I am advised that, since the date of the June count, full-time working has been resumed at two firms at which short-time had been in operation. The local employment exchange is giving every assistance to unemployed workers.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what action he is taking to clarify the present apparently confused state of the law on which ships are, and which are not, exempt from carrying pilots in pilotage waters.

The question whether or not a particular ship is liable to compulsory pilotage is one to be determined in accordance with the provisions of the Pilotage Act, 1913, and of byelaws made under that Act. I do not think that any general action on my part directed to clarifying the existing law is either necessary or desirable but if my hon. Friend has any specific points I will gladly consider them.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation the estimated cost of the Brentwood by-pass.

About £1 million.