asked the Minister of Transport what official arrangements were requested of, or made by, his Department to enable a road transport productivity team, sent to this country by the National Productivity Council of India, effectively to study British methods of road transport organisation.

None. As is the usual practice in such cases my Department was consulted by the British Council about the programme proposed for the visit. This programme did not call for any action by my Department, but the Council was informed that, if any help was required from my Department, it would be willingly provided.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many local authority houses were completed in the cities, large burghs and small burghs, respectively, in the last twelve months; and what the figures were for 1952 and 1955.

For years ended 30th September, the numbers were:

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies which delegates attended the Commonwealth Education Conference to represent the non-self-governing territories; and how they were selected.

The non-self-governing territories were represented at the Commonwealth Education Conference by twenty-eight persons who formed a "wing" of the United Kingdom delegation. This "wing" was led by a Deputy Under Secretary of State from the Colonial Office, and included three educational advisers to the Secretary of State, and twenty-four representatives from the main territories with which the Colonial Office is concerned. These representatives were selected by their respective Governments. Representation of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland was provided for separately in the delegation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. A list of members of the Colonial "wing" is given below.Leader:

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state in table form the cost of bringing up to the level enjoyed by United Kingdom civil servants under the Pensions Increase Act, 1959, pensions paid by each colonial and ex-colonial Government both to erstwhile expatriate civil servants and to their widows and orphans.

The pensions increase schemes of most overseas territories are necessarily related to local circumstances and in particular to the dates of local salaries revisions. For this reason, and also because of differences in the pension laws themselves, they differ substantially, both in the dates of their introduction and in their form, from the United Kingdom increase scheme. I regret therefore that it is not possible to establish a sufficient basis of comparison between overseas increase schemes and the United Kingdom increase scheme to enable any general estimate to be made of the cost of bringing pensions increases paid by all overseas Governments to the same level as those paid by the United Kingdom Government. The only way to make such an estimate would be for each territory concerned to work out increases which would be payable at the current United Kingdom rates to each of their pensioners and to compare it with the pension increases actually in payment to each pensioner. This would be an enormous task which I do not feel justified in asking overseas territories to undertake.