asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether the United Kingdom has ratified the International Coffee Agreement, 1962, Command Paper No. 1841; whether the Agreement has yet entered into force; and when the first session of the International Coffee Council set up under the Agreement will take place.

The United Kingdom's ratification of the International Coffee Agreement was deposited with the United Nations on 25th April, 1963. The Agreement entered into force provisionally on 1st July, 1963, with the deposit of ratifications, or notifications of intention to seek ratification, by countries representing 80 per cent. of world coffee exports and 80 per cent. of world imports. The United Nations is convening the first session of the International Coffee Council to open in London on Monday, 29th July.

asked the Minister of Education what is the present pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools, secondary modern schools, and grammar schools, respectively, in Middlesex; and what were the comparable figures for 1958.

The table below gives the ratio of pupils to teachers in three types of maintained schools in Middlesex, for January, 1958, and the latest available year. An allowance has been made in the calculations for the full-time equivalent of part-time teachers.

	1958	1962
Primary schools	30·9	29·9
Secondary modern Schools	21·9	20·5
Secondary grammar Schools	18·5	18·0

asked the Minister of Health how much frozen liquid Chinese egg is in store in this country; how much has been pasteurised; and when he will introduce regulations to control this substance.

The information is not available. Regulations will be laid this month.

asked the Minister of Health if it is within the competence of a regional hospital board to designate as medical assistant posts those where a senior hospital medical officer has been upgraded by a Whitley appeal to that of consultant.

No. It will be for me to determine what posts in a new intermediate grade should be approved.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many persons have been prevented by the Metropolitan Police from leaving the country during the present year and in each of the last preceding 10 years;(2) if he will give particulars of persons who since the beginning of the present year have been prevented by the Metropolitan Police from leaving the country although not charged with any offence.

This information is not available.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what he expects to be the total cost of the special security precautions taken by the Commissioner of Police in the Metropolitan district in connection with the visit of the King and Queen of the Hellenes.

I regret that it would be difficult to estimate the total additional expenditure incurred by the police on this occasion.

asked the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs (1) how many flats and houses especially designed for elderly people were completed in each of the past five years by local authorities in England and Wales; how many have been approved for construction during the current year; and how many were under construction at the latest available date;(2) what proportion of the houses and flats built by local authorities in each of the past five years has been specially designed for elderly people; and what is the proportion of such houses and flats in the current building programme.

The number of one bedroom dwellings completed by local authorities in the last five years and the percentage of the total number of completed dwellings are:

1958	20,132	17·8 per cent.
1959	21,840	22·0 per cent.
1960	27,057	26·2 per cent.
1961	24,257	26·1 per cent.
1962	28,971	27·5 per cent.

In the first three months of the current year, 4,327 one bedroom dwellings were completed; this represented 31·5 per cent. of the total completions. During the same period 7,395 were approved; this was 28·2 per cent. of the total number of dwellings approved.At 31st March, 1963, 52,780 one bedroom dwellings were either under construction or covered by tenders approved but not put to contract; this was 27·2 per cent. of the dwellings under construction or approved.

asked the Minister of Labour how many school leavers are at present on the unemployed list in the employment exchanges of the Blyth constituency; and what were the comparative figures for 1960, 1961, and 1962, respectively.

91 on 10th June, 1963. The comparable figures for 1960, 1961 and 1962 were 15, 6 and 17, respectively.

asked the Postmaster General how many television licences were issued in the Stockport Head Post Office District in the years ended 30th June, 1961, 1962 and 1963, respectively.

The numbers of television licences in force in the Stockport Head Post Office District on the 30th June, 1961, 1962 and 1963 respectively were 63,009, 67,237 and 74,772.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science what sites of special scientific interest within the Epping and Ongar rural district have been notified by the Nature Conservancy in accordance with Section 23 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, 1949; what are the special features of interest in each case; and what restrictions have been imposed.

The seven sites of special scientific interest within the Epping and Ongar Rural District are listed below with their special features of interest. The Nature Conservancy has no statutory powers to impose restrictions on these sites, but has to be consulted before any development requiring planning permission takes place on them.

Roding Valley: Old permanent pasture and water meadows flank the river, which is an important migration route for a variety of birds and a breeding ground for others including kingfisher and reed bunting.

Naverstock Park: Although not a wild area it contains many native plants; the lake is fringed with a good marsh vegetation; and bird-life is abundant and varied.

Curtismill Green: A wild area of damp woods and marshes of a type now rare in Essex. A very rare insect is found there.

Norton Heath: A very rare species of plant is there.

Gaynes Park and Ongar Park Wood: A fine stretch of mixed woodland, now partly opened up, where there is a great variety of wild life from badgers and redstarts to uncommon marsh plants and rare insects.

Fyfield Fields: Although this is entirely farmland, a rare plant has its British centre of distribution in this area.

Epping Forest: Woodlands considered to be of national importance scientifically, and are much used for biological studies by schools, colleges, and natural history societies.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what further representations have been made to him by the Cairngorm Winter Sports Development Board Limited; and what was the nature of his reply.

The Company has asked that its application for financial assistance should be reconsidered by the Board of Trade Advisory Committee. I have told it that I have no powers to intervene with the Advisory Committee in an individual case, but that it is open to the Cairngorms Board to re-submit its application on a modified basis and that the Advisory Committee will be prepared to examine on its merits any fresh proposal put to it.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland which Scottish local authorities do not provide adoption facilities.

The counties of Caithness, Sutherland and Zetland have not found it necessary in addition to discharging such duties as registering adoption societies and supervising children placed for adoption in their area to exercise their discretionary power themselves to make arrangements for the adoption of children. I am informed that they are ready to do so if the need arises.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland which Scottish local authorities do not have their own children's department.

Each of the 55 local authorities with child care responsibilities has its own children's officer—full or part time—with appropriate staff, with the following exceptions:

(1) There is one child care staff serving the combined area of Midlothian, East Lothian and Peebleshire and a similar joint appointment by Dumfries shire and Dumfries burgh.

(2) In the counties of Berwick, Bute, Moray and Nairn and Selkirk and in the burghs of Airdrie, Ayr and Coat bridge the authorities' child care and welfare functions are carried out by the same staffs but under the supervision of separate children's and welfare committees.

asked the Minister of Transport what conditions he laid down, when giving his approval to the closing of the Eden Valley railway line, regarding the proportion of the cost of any alternative bus services to be borne by the railway.

None. The Central Transport Consultative Committee's recommendation, made in July, 1961, under the provisions of the Transport Act, 1947, was that all train services between Barnard Castle and Penrith should be withdrawn and the line closed. There was no suggestion that the railways should bear the cost of any alternative services. I considered the Committee's recommendation in accordance with Section 6 (8) of the Act and accepted it.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the maximum period of repayment of loans granted by the Public Works Loan Board from 60 to 80 years.

The Public Works Loan Board will lend for whatever period a local authority is empowered to borrow. Where the loan repayment period under the Local Government Acts is 80 years, as it is for some purposes, the Public Works Loan Board would be willing to make a loan repayable over that period.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will rescind the practice of the Public Works Loan Board of requiring repayment of loans by annual instalments.

This is one of the points being considered in the current review of local authority borrowing. Legislation would be needed to rescind this requirement.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the interest rate charged on loans by the Public Works Loan Board is kept at a level much higher than the gross redemption yields on Government funds of any redemption date; and if he will reduce the differential to a level sufficient only to cover the costs of administration.

The rate of interest charged on Public Works Loan Board loans is kept in line with the rate of interest local authorities have to pay on their market borrowing, so as to ensure that local authorities which borrow from the Public Works Loan Board are neither better nor worse off than those which borrow on the market. This is a necessary part of the present arrangements whereby the Public Works Loan Board only acts as lender of last resort to local authorities which cannot borrow on reasonable terms on the market. These arrangements are now under review.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is satisfied that the Inland Revenue has adequate powers to require newspapers and other journals to state what payments in cash or otherwise are paid directly or indirectly to those who publish personal confessions or revelations or similar matters; and if he will introduce emergency legislation to enable receipts from such articles to be taxed at source.

The answer to the first part of my hon. Friend's Question is "Yes". On the second part, I am not satisfied that it is necessary or would be appropriate to introduce legislation for the taxation at source of payments of this kind.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will obtain from international organisations, of which he and they are members, comparative rates of tax per gallon of derv fuel used by road transport in Great Britain and in France, West Germany, Italy, Sweden, Eire, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands; and if he will publish the figures.

Differences in the structure of the various duties and taxes levied on hydrocarbon oils in the countries named make precice comparison of levels of taxation impossible and, so far as I am aware, no up-to-date figures are available from international organisations of which the United Kingdom Government is a member. Bearing in mind the difficulties of comparison it is, however, estimated that the total burden of taxation on derv fuel used by road transport in the countries named is approximately as follows:

	Approximate total duty and tax burden per gallon
	s.	d.
Great Britain	2	9
France	2	11
West Germany	2	6
Italy	2	8
Sweden	2	1
Eire	2	2
Switzerland	1	8
Austria	1	3
Finland		9
Portugal	1	3
Greece	1	0
Belgium		5
Norway		2
Denmark	Nil
Netherlands		2