asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many of the areas of outstanding natural beauty listed by the Hobhouse Report have now been designated.

The National Parks Commission has made orders designating fourteen areas of outstanding natural beauty; twelve have come into operation following confirmation by my right hon. Friend's predecessors, and he is considering two which have been submitted to him for confirmation.

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation to what extent technical educational instruction is being provided in schools in the Colonies; and what proposals he has for its expansion.

The answer to the first part of the Question is given below.As regards proposals for expansion, substantial grants from C.D. & W. funds have recently been approved for the Kampala Technical Institute, the Kenya Polytechnic, the Jamaica College of Arts, Science and Technology, and the Lusaka College of Further Education. Overseas governments are being invited to nominate candidates for Commonwealth technical teacher bursaries. The Council for Technical Education and Training for Overseas Countries will also, I hope, help us to find ways of focusing and intensifying our effort.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how much were the total administrative costs, including members' remuneration, incurred by the Cwmbran Development Corporation in the years ended March, 1960, March, 1961, and March, 1962, respectively; and, in view of the fall in the number of houses completed by the Corporation from 451 in the year ended March, 1961, to 115 in the year ended March, 1962, whether he is satisfied with the present administrative costs.

The amounts, in round figures, are £131,000, £144,000 and £152,000. The 115 houses are part of a much larger contract, but in addition work has gone ahead steadily on planning for the larger population, building the town centre and preparing further housing contracts. I am satisfied that the costs are reasonable.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs how many were employed in the architects' department of the Cwmbran Development Corporation in the years ended March, 1960, March, 1961, and March, 1962, respectively; upon what terms and conditions the chief architect is being released from full-time employment with the corporation; and, in view of the continued fall in the number of houses being completed, whether he is satisfied that the staff of the department are employed to full advantage.

The corporation informs me that the architectural staff for the years mentioned were 13, 13 and 14. The corporation also tells me that the chief architect resigned so that he can re-enter private practice. On the question whether the staff are employed to full advantage, I am not satisfied with the rate of progress and this is being discussed with the corporation.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what recent steps he has taken to increase exports from Scotland to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

British-Soviet trade has expanded steadily since the 1959 Trade Agreement and will, we hope, continue to do so.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what reply he has sent to Clayton-le-Moors Urban District Council in reply to the resolutions forwarded by them regarding the situation in the cotton textile industry.

The council has been informed that the terms of the resolutions are being borne in mind. My right hon. Friend intends to make a statement on the Government's policy in relation to the situation in the cotton textile industry before the Whitsun Recess.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he can now state when he intends to introduce legislation to protect small investors and depositors.

No. Legislation will be introduced as soon as the parliamentary programme permits.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether there is any form of agreement between Swaziland and the Union of South Africa which could restrict the possibilities open to British trade in Swaziland.

Swaziland, like Basutoland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate, has since 1910 been in a Customs Union with South Africa, which provides that products and manufactures shall be freely interchangeable between the parties, and that the customs tariff for goods imported into the territories from elsewhere shall he similar to that of the Republic.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will make a statement on the Barbados, Windward and Leeward Islands Conference, recently concluded in London.

A White Paper on the East Caribbean Federation Conference will be laid before the House on 5th June and published simultaneously here and in the West Indian territories concerned on 6th June. Meanwhile, I will place in the Library, copies of the full Press communiqué released after the last session of the conference and send a copy also to the hon. Member.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether all the Commissions mentioned in the Kenya White Paper will be appointed and given terms of reference within the context of the agreed Constitutional framework.

Yes.

asked the Minister of Works what arrangements he has made to ensure that sufficient deckchairs will be available for the public to hire this summer in the Royal Parks under his administrative control.

I have arranged for the British Council for Rehabilitation of the Disabled to manage a chair service on my behalf.

asked the Minister of Works what steps he is taking to engage more staff in order to increase the road patrols in Richmond Park.

Advertisements have failed to produce a suitable candidate for full time work and I am therefore looking into the possibility of employing part-time staff at week-ends.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will instruct his staff not to deface picture postcards, particularly those of artistic merit, as in the example sent him by the hon. Member for Chigwell.

Post Office staffs have standing instructions not to date-stamp the picture side of picture postcards, and my right hon. Friend can only say how sorry he is that in the case referred to by my hon. Friend these instructions were not followed. My right hon. Friend hopes that as a result of the action he has now taken there will be no further cause for complaint.

asked the Postmaster-General what further consideration he has given to introducing concessionary postal rates for religious organisations undertaking bona fide charitable work.

My right hon. Friend has considered this matter again but, much as he sympathises with the aims of the organisations to which the hon. Member refers, he regrets that he cannot let them have concessionary postage rates.

asked the Postmaster-General what training colleges for Post Office workers at present exist in the West Midlands; what changes are proposed in the sizes or locations of these colleges; how many staff members and students are affected by these proposals; what will be the total cost of carrying them out; and how he intends to dispose of the buildings and houses vacated.

The Post Office training colleges in the West Midlands at present are the Central Engineering Training School, Stone, Staffs.: the Regional Postal Training School, Featherstone, Wolverhampton, Staffs.: the Regional Wing Telephone Training School, Newhall Street, Birmingham, 3: the Regional Clerical Training School, Broad Street, Birmingham, 15: the Regional Engineering Training School, Shirley, Warwickshire.The only change at present in prospect is the removal of the Central Engineering Training School, at present housed in war-time temporary buildings, to new accommodation at Harlow, Essex. Planning is in progress and the new buildings are expected to be ready for occupation about the end of 1965. No change is proposed in the size of the school.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will list the illegal broadcasting transmissions that have been made by various organisations during the past six months, naming the organisations and the areas of transmission.

The illegal broadcasts to which the hon. Gentleman refers have purported to be on behalf of the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists movements, and in support of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They have been made from various places in Scotland, Wales and Greater London. No detailed record of particular broadcasts is held, but I am collating the available information and I will write to the hon. Member.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will give an estimate of the time that has been spent by Post Office engineers tracking down illegal broadcasting stations; what steps they are taking to jam such broadcasts; and whether he will now authorise special steps to be taken to catch offenders.

I am sorry that detailed information is not available of time spent on particular investigations and it is not possible to give a reliable estimate. No steps have been taken to jam the broadcasts. As I said in my Answer to the hon. Gentleman's Question on 16th May, there are severe practical difficulties involved in catching the offenders.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on what date instructions were given by his Department to enable the examination of additional farm enterprises to take place as a result of the new qualifications of eligibility under the Small Farmers' Scheme announced on 15th March.

The extension of the Small Farmer Scheme announced in March must be given effect under a Statutory Instrument, which I intend shortly to lay in draft before the House for approval. Immediately the new Scheme is laid, I propose to invite those affected to make provisional applications, so that we can go ahead with examining them. Individual plans cannot of course be approved, nor can any work be started, until the statutory instrument is made and takes effect.

asked the Minister of Health how many Medresco transistors have been issued up to the last convenient date; and what is the present rate of issue in licences per month.

320,000 Medresco transistor aids had been issued to hearing aid centres by the end of April, 1962. The monthly rate of issue will be increased next month from 16,000 to 24,000.

asked the Minister of Health when it is proposed to make the first issue of the Medresco transistors.

I assume the question refers to the Medresco bone conduction transistor aid. Limited numbers will be available next month.

asked the Minister of Health if, in place of the present school hearing aid, which is withdrawn when a child leaves school, he will now authorise the general issue of a Medresco model incorporating a loop induction coil.

No. These instruments would not be of general benefit.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has authorised any change of policy relating to the filling of vacancies on the Welsh Regional Hospital Board, under which local authority representation is diminished.

No; members have always been chosen for the contribution they can make and not as representatives.

asked the Minister of Education if he will give the numbers of men

asked the Minister of Labour if he will now make a statement about the ratification of the European Social Charter.

The text of the European Social Charter was published on 17th April in the Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series of Command Papers (Miscellaneous No. 4, 1962) (Cmnd. 1667) and was laid before Parliament by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.The bases for ratification are set out in Article 20 of the Charter. In order to ratify a Government must both accept Part I of the Charter as a declaration of aims which they will pursue by all appropriate means and at least five of seven specified articles in Part II of the Charter and sufficient additional articles

The table below gives the number of full-time teachers in maintained primary and secondary schools for the years 1947 to 1961, with comparable figures for 1938. Comparable statistics were not compiled for the intervening years.or paragraphs of articles to make the total number of articles accepted to not less than 10, or the total number of paragraphs to not less than 45. The United Kingdom accepts the principles laid down in Part I of the Charter, six of the seven specified articles in Part II of the Charter and eight additional articles in that Part, making fourteen in all.The conditions for ratification are thus satisfied and Her Majesty's Government propose to ratify the Charter as soon as possible after the expiry of 21 sitting days since publication.The specified articles which it is proposed to accept are:Articles 1, 5, 6, 13, 16 and 19.In addition it is proposed to accept the following articles and paragraphs:Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Article 2.Article 3.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress has been made in the provision of the extension to the Randolph Wemyss Hospital, Buckhaven.

Work on the site is to start on 11th June.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury why his Department insists upon the receipting of warrants when salary warrants of civil servants are paid into banks.

Civil servants who are not paid in cash and who do not have their salaries paid into their bank account by credit transfer are normally paid by payable order. These payable orders are not cheques and are not therefore subject to the provisions of Section 3 of the Cheques Act, 1957. It would he difficult to exempt a particular class of payee such as civil servants from the general requirement of endorsement of payable orders.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that during the past 12 months the £ sterling has depreciated in purchasing value by 1s. 1d.; and whether he will therefore take the necessary action to ensure a minimum of a 5 per cent. increase in all the salaries and wages of Treasury and Government employees.

The answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative, and to the second in the negative.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has yet received the advice of the University Grants Committee on the future of the Royal College of Science and Technology, Glasgow; and whether he will make a statement.

Yes. The University Grants Committee inform me that they feel that both on general grounds and in view of the need for more university places in Scotland a decision to enable the college to increase its number of degree students and to broaden the scope of its academic work should now be made. In particular, if the new Faculty of Industrial and Social Studies is to be developed adequately within the quinquennium, work on the necessary accommodation and the recruitment of the necessary staff must be started this year.Though the work of the Robbins Committee on the future pattern of higher education is not yet complete, the University Grants Committee have felt justified in agreeing to the college's proposal to include accommodation for industrial and social studies in their building programme for 1962, and they took into account the College's wish to develop these studies in their submission to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the Universities' financial needs for the coming quinquennium 1962–67. The Committee accept the case for the college being granted full university status, including the power to award its own degrees. In view however of the possibility that changes in the future pattern of higher education may be recommended by the Robbins Committee, they have thought it wise to limit present action to that which I have just described and to defer their final advice to the Government until that Committee have reported.