asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on how many occasions during 1963 the price of refined sugar was varied by the refiners, differentiating so far as possible between changes attributable to movements in the free world market price and those occasioned by distribution payments made in conformity with the Sugar Act, 1956.

I am informed that the price of refined sugar has varied on 171 occasions, of which 13 arose from changes in the rates of surcharge or distribution payments.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total amount of British beef exported to Europe in the years 1960 to 1963; and how much subsidy was paid for the rearing of the cattle.

Exports to the Continent of Europe of live cattle, other than cattle for breeding, over the four years 1960 to 1963 totalled 85,800 head. Figures distinguishing exports of beef and of other kinds of meat are not available for the whole of this period. The amount of subsidy paid on these exports cannot be calculated since not all of the animals or carcases would qualify for guarantee payments and the rates of payment vary from week to week. The greater part of the exports was however of animals that would not have been eligible for subsidy.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he is aware that from 1952 until 1962 the price of food rose by 32·5 per cent.; what were the reasons for this increase; and what action he proposes to take to reduce the price of food.

By far the major part of the increase came in 1952–56, as a direct result of the Government's decision to abolish food subsidies. Since then, the rise has been of the order of 1½ per cent. per year. This compares with an increase of about 2½ per cent. in the cost of living generally, and has been largely due to increases in wages and distribution costs, fuel and transport.Our food and agricultural arrangements ensure that our food generally in this country can be got more cheaply than under any other effective system.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make available through the National Agricultural Advisory Service a leaflet and draft contract form to comply with the Contracts of Employment Act, 1963.

Copies of the Ministry of Labour leaflet Notes for the guidance of Employers and Employees, containing examples of general written statements under the Contracts of Employment Act, 1963, are available free from employment exchanges and from my Ministry's divisional offices.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will introduce legislation to ensure that all milk sold through vending machines has been pasteurised.

No. I could not justify imposing on these sales a restriction that does not apply generally to retail sales of milk.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will reconsider the penalty of 2s. 4d. a gallon on milk containing traces of antibiotic.

The Milk Marketing Board has not yet introduced price reductions, though it intends to do so as soon as it is satisfied that producers can be offered firm advice as to the periods for which milk from cows treated with different antibiotics should be withheld from sale.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the final out-turn of agricultural support for 1963–64.

The latest out-turn figure—subject to final adjustment and audit—of the cost of agricultural support in the financial year 1963–64 (Class V, Votes 3, 4, 5 and 6), is £294·1 million. Details are:

asked the Minister of Labour if he will seek to hold an inquiry, similar to that to be made into trades unions, into the privileges, practices and conduct of the professions.

I have no plans for such an inquiry.

asked the Minister of Labour how many studies of regional manpower requirements his Manpower Research Unit has initiated in the last three months.

The studies at present being undertaken by the Manpower Research Unit are concerned with manpower requirements at the national level. My Department is also participating fully in the comprehensive studies of individual regions now in hand and is sponsoring several research projects relating to regional and local manpower requirements.

asked the Minister of Labour how many employees are currently employed on defence contracts; and what proportion of this total is employed in Scotland and London and the South-East Region, respectively.

In November, 1963, the latest date for which figures are available, 357,500 employees in manufacturing industry were employed on defence contracts. Of this total 8·3 and 18·0 per cent. were in Scotland and the London and South Eastern Region respectively.

asked the Minister of Labour how many people are being trained and retrained at the Tursdale Training Centre, County Durham, apart from those connected with the mining industry, specifying whether they are juveniles or adults.

87 adults and 47 first-year apprentices are being trained at the Tursdale Government Training Centre.

asked the Minister of Labour, in view of the publication of development plans for several regions and of the importance of a close study of manpower trends in relation to these plans, if he will appoint statisticians in his Department exclusively for such work.

We have not so far found it necessary to employ individual statisticians exclusively on this work but the position will be kept under review.

asked the Minister of Labour (1) if he will set out in tabular form the skilled occupations in which there was a shortage of labour during 1963 and at present, respectively; what

The following table lists the principal skilled occupations in which the number of unfilled vacancies notified to Employment Exchanges in Great Britain exceeded the number registered as wholly unemployed in each quarter of 1963. The table also gives the numbers of vacancies and wholly unemployed in Great Britain and for each region in occupations where unfilled vacancies exceeded wholly unemployed in March, 1964, which is the latest date for which figures are available. I regret that to give a list of individual towns would involve an excessive amount of staff time.

asked the Minister of Labour if he is aware that a number of men finished work last weekend at the Crook Drift Colliery and that recent tests are causing further concern in the Crook and Willington area; and what steps he is taking to find jobs for the men displaced.

I am aware that as a result of a partial colliery closure on 2nd May, 69 miners were affected and the future of a further 13 is to be considered later. Alternative employment was offered by the National Coal Board to 64 of the men affected and 45 have accepted. Twenty miners have registered with our local officers and we are doing all we can to help them find other work.

asked the Minister of Labour if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the percentage increase in numbers of insured employees, made and female shown separately, for each of his Department's administrative regions, respectively, since 1951.

Following is the information. It is not possible to calculate separate employee figures for 1951 for the present areas covered by the Midlands and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Regions.

asked the Minister of Labour if he will state the unemployment figures in Gateshead and the Northern Region at the latest available date, and the corresponding figures on the same date in each year from 1951 to 1963.

The following table gives the information:

asked the Minister of Labour if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the ratio of wholly unemployed persons to notified unfilled vacancies for each of his administrative regions as at January, 1964, and at the latest date available.

Following is the information:

asked the Minister of Public Building and Works whether he is satisfied that Somerset House is a suitable building for the Board of Inland Revenue and the General Register Office; and whether he will make this building available for social occasions.

The answer to the first part of the hon. Gentleman's Question is "Yes", and to the second part "No".

asked the Minister of Health when work will be commenced on the construction of the new maternity unit for North Staffordshire; and what priority will be given to the proposed new pathology department.

Later this year; the new pathology department is being brought forward as a separate scheme, to start by 1968–69.

asked the Minister of Health what steps are now being taken to increase the number of maternity beds in Bristol, where there is a shortage.

Work on major maternity units at Frenchay and the Bristol teaching hospital is planned to start in 1965 and 1967 respectively.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware that schoolchildren in Bristol have to wait for a long period for tonsil operations, which causes further deterioration in the child's health; and if he will take steps to provide greater facilities through the regional hospital boards for these children.

Non-urgent cases have to wait for several months but urgent cases are dealt with at once. The Regional Hospital Board intends to appoint an additional registrar and is considering the extension of operating facilities.

asked the Minister of Health how many operations for the transfer of a kidney from a healthy person to replace a diseased kidney in another person have taken place during the past five years; and in how many cases these operations have been successful.

No central record of these operations is kept.

asked the Minister of Health why the average cost of catering salaries and wages per patient fed each week in pyschiatric, mental sub-normality, hospitals is 6s. 11d. as against 18s. 9d. in acute hospitals.

The main reasons for lower catering staff costs in the psychiatric hospitals are that catering is simpler, with fewer special diets, and that it is generally done on a larger scale.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is satisfied that the quality of food provided in psychiatric hospitals is of comparable quality with the food provided in acute hospitals.

I have no reason to think that the quality of food purchased by psychiatric hospitals is, in general, unsatisfactory, but, as my noble Friend knows, a detailed study is now in progress, covering costs, quantities and standards of food provided in twelve psychiatric hospitals.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that a new general hospital, to be sited in South Bristol, was foreshadowed in A Hospital Plan for England and Wales, Command Paper No. 1604, and that his predecessor said it would be commenced about 1965–66 with the provision of two maternity wards, comprising 34 beds; whether the recent statement by the South-West Regional Hospital Board announcing the deferring of the building of a new hospital in South Bristol was issued with his authority; and what are his reasons for not implementing the undertaking given by his predecessor.

Cmnd. 1604 listed the first phase of a new hospital in South Bristol among major schemes expected to start between 1966–67 and 1970–71. I am not aware of any undertaking that it would start in 1965–66, and I understand that the South Western Regional Hospital Board has made no statement about the scheme except to confirm that it is not among the schemes listed in the latest revision of the plan as expected to start in the years 1964–65 to 1968–69. Priority is being given in the next five years to the building of a maternity unit at Frenchay Hospital, new operating theatres at Southmead Hospital, new accident and emergency and out-patient departments at Bristol Royal Infirmary, a new maternity unit and a Regional Radio-therapy Centre on the Teaching Hospital site.

asked the Minister of Health if he will list by regions those schemes estimated to cost £1,000,000 and over which were scheduled in the Hospital Plan, Command Paper No. 1604, to start not later than 1970–71, and which have now been deferred beyond 1973–74, indicating the present estimated cost of each scheme.

With changes in priorities, involving the development of new projects and the bringing forward and enlargement of others, it has been necessary, despite an increased hospital programme in real terms to defer until after 1973–74 some of the projects in Command Paper 1604. Of the schemes so deferred, those likely to cost more than £1 million are listed below. As the programme has been expanded and revised, some of the schemes have changed considerably from what was earlier envisaged, and are likely to change further. For this reason and because an early start is not expected, estimates made now of their eventual cost would be misleading.

Newcastle Region—Sunderland General Hospital—new ward blocks.

East Anglian Region

• West Suffolk General Hospital—geriatric and maternity units, etc.
• Great Yarmouth New Hospital—first phase.

North West Metropolitan Region

• Royal Northern Hospital—first phase of redevelopment.
• Shrodells Hospital, Watford—first phase of major redevelopment.

North East Metropolitan Region

• St. George's Hospital, Hornchurch—new out-patient and X-ray departments.
• Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield—extensive rebuilding.
• Harts Hospital, Woodford Green—new district general hospital.
• Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone—extensions and improvements.
• Harold Wood Hospital—completion of new hospital.
• Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford—new district general hospital.

South West Metropolitan Region

• Manor Hospital, Epsom—rebuilding.
• New Hospital for mentally subnormal in south-west Surrey.

Wessex Region—St. Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth—ward blocks and operating theatres.

South Western Region—New geriatric hospital at Devizes.

Birmingham Region—Prestwood Hospital, near Stourbridge—new hospital.

Manchester Region

• Barrow Hospital—second phase of new hospital.
• Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport—expansion and rebuilding.
• Salford Royal Hospital—first phase of new hospital.
• Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan—first phase of rebuilding.

asked the Minister of Health whether he recognises the R.S.H. Jamaican Public Health Inspector's Certificate as a qualification for appointment as a public health inspector in this country.

Overseas qualifications are not recognised in the Public Health Officers Regulations, 1959, but individual dispensations can be given in suitable cases.

asked the Minister of Health what action he has taken, since the publication of the Franks Committee Report, Command Paper No. 218, on Recommendations 54, 56 and 57 relating to the National Health Service; and when those Recommendations are to be implemented.

The Government have already announced that they are unable to accept recommendation 56. I am awaiting the views of the Council on Tribunals on recommendation 57, which has been discussed with the Council. On recommendation 54, I do not think that assistance from Ministry or Executive Council officials in the preparation of cases would be easy to reconcile with the functions of the Ministry and the Councils in determining the cases.

asked the Minister of Health when it is intended to publish the result of the study now being undertaken to establish the number of British-born doctors who have emigrated permanently; and if this number will be broken down into age groups of under and over 35.

I will consider how to do this when the study has been completed.

asked the Minister of Health if he will state the present membership of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration and the main occupations of the members.

:Chairman:

asked the Minister of Health (1) how many of the non-domestic staff in local authority mental health hostels have attended special training courses; how many are attending such courses at present; and how many places will be available in courses now under consideration;(2) what minimum standards of training are laid down for persons taking up non-domestic staff posts in local authority mental health hostels;(3) what was the number of non-domestic staff in local authority mental health hostels during each of the past three years; and what is the figure at the latest available date;(4) what steps he is taking to arrange training courses for non-domestic staff for local authority mental health hostels.

The number employed, in whole-time equivalents, on 31st December was 71 in 1961, 116 in 1962 and 227 in 1963. The other figures asked for are not available. No national standards of training are laid down; it is for each local authority to decide what qualifications and experience are appropriate for any appointment. I understand that one special two-week course attended by 18 persons was held by the National Association for Mental Health early this year and that others are under consideration, but I do not know how many places may be provided. A Committee appointed by the National Council of Social Service is at present considering the staffing of all types of residential homes, including the question of training.

asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies what steps were taken by his Department to verify the accuracy of the rumours circulating in the South Arabian Federation regarding the alleged decapitation of two British Service men before they were given currency by the General Officer Commanding, Middle East Forces.

The Colonial Office had no information on this matter in advance of the statement by the General Officer Commanding.

asked the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development if he will publish a White Paper containing the texts of the main proposals submitted by Governments and international organisations to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva.

I fear that this would not be practicable in view of the great, and still increasing, number of important documents. The United Nations intends to publish a Record of Proceedings of the Conference which will contain all the main documents submitted to it.

asked the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development how many applications have been received from industrialists to the latest convenient date to take over the advance factory, standing idle for the past nine months, in the Crook and Willington Urban District Council area.

Two The first was not proceeded with but the second is in the closing stages of negotiation.

asked the Minister of Aviation what investigations he has now made as to methods of decreasing the time of travel between city centres and airports; and to what extent the advantages of a monorail system for this purpose have been considered, in view of the increasing speed, volume and all-weather capability of air travel between airports and the relative slowness of ground travel between city centres and airports.

The surface traffic generated by any British civil aerodrome other than Heathrow is not yet sufficiently great to justify a special transport system. Forseeable needs can probably best be met by improving existing means of access or providing short links with existing roads.The amount of traffic at Heathrow puts it in a different category. An interdepartmental Committee on which airlines are also represented has been studying the question of providing rail access, but so far no generally acceptable solution has been found. As regards monorail systems my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport has agreed to investigate along with my officials any proposals submitted to him in sufficient detail. Interested developers have been told the sort of detailed information that he requires.

asked the Minister of Aviation what are the respective costs of fitting hand rails on both sides of the ramp at the civil airport at Aldergrove in County Antrim and of covering the surface of the ramp with non-skid composition, similar to that in use at Manchester airport; and how long it would take to complete such work.

Approximately £300 and £1,200. About one month.

asked the Minister of Aviation, in relation to the Ferranti Bloodhound contract, what percentage of the labour cost of £574,000 had been incurred by October, 1960, when the price was agreed.

84 per cent.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what use is being made of the Brancepeth Camp buildings of brick structure, now vacated by the Army.

None, at present. It is possible that there may be a future Army use for this camp.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the subjects of the examination for the administrative class of the Civil Service, the choice of subjects required of candidates and the maximum number of marks obtainable in each subject.

There are two methods of entry to the Administrative Class, by open competition from outside the Civil Service.In both methods candidates normally have to take a qualifying examination in general subjects (Essay 100 marks, English 200, General Paper 200). Candidates by one method then go on to group tests and interviews at the Civil Service Selection Board and an interview by the Final Board; there is no further academic examination but a good honours degree, which can be in any subject, is a necessary qualification.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what information he has as to how output per head of the population in Great Britain, measured in £s sterling, compares with that of West Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, respectively.

The table below shows the gross national product, at factor cost, per head of the population in 1962. The figures are given in national currencies, since conversion to sterling at the official rates of exchange would be misleading.

asked the Minister of Transport whether he will give instructions for an urgent exploratory survey to be made of road connections from M.6 to the neighbourhood of Hest Bank and from Bardsea to the Duddon which, by linking up with a barrage, would form part of a scheme to improve communications generally to Barrow and West Cumberland.

Schemes which have been put forward for a barrage across Morecambe Bay incorporating a road to improve communications with Barrow and West Cumberland are already being examined by the North-West Regional Study Group as part of the study announced on 2nd March by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development. My Department is associated with this study.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will in- vite the councils of each of the London boroughs and the City to submit to him estimates of the additional population they could expect to accommodate by 1981, on the basis of both actual and potential developments, for comparison with the estimates based on demographic considerations being prepared by the Registrar General.

The London White Paper of February, 1963, referred to the need for a survey of the housing land capacity of London and concluded that this would need to be done by a single authority with the power to plan ways and means of increasing the capacity. My right hon. Friend would expect a comprehensive survey of this kind, which would include a reappraisal of existing planning policies, to be one of the first major tasks of the Greater London Council.