asked the Minister of Public Building and Works why he has permitted new lighting standards to be erected in Constitution Hill.

I would refer the hon. Member to my replies to the hon. Member for Richmond, Surrey (Mr. A. Royle) on 12th February.—[Vol. 758, c.271.]

asked the Lord President of the Council whether he will propose that consideration should be given by the Select Committee on House of Commons (Services) to the arrangement in consultation with the Minister of Public Building and Works of an open architectural competition to provide the best solution to

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of established posts for residential child care staff in residential nurseries, children's homes and hostels, respectively; and what was the number of such staff actually employed by children's departments, at the latest available date.

The Association of Children's Officers informed the Central the need for new parliamentary accommodation.

Proposals for a new parliamentary building are under consideration by the Select Committee on House of Commons (Services). The question of an open architectural competition is one of the many matters which is being discussed with the Minister of Public Building and Works.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give figures showing the amount of crime recorded and cleared up in England and Wales in 1967 and a comparison with 1966.

The following table gives the figures for indictable offences known to the police in England and Wales in 1966 and provisional figures for 1967:Training council for Child Care that on 30th September, 1963, local authority residential nurseries in England and Wales provided 1,908 child care posts, of which 113 were then vacant. An inquiry by the Social Survey showed that on 1st August, 1961 there were 3,046 resident full-time houseparents and assistants in local authority children's homes in England and Wales and 351 vacancies in these grades. I regret that no similar information is available for hostels.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of staff in residential nurseries, children's homes and hostels who hold the Certificate of Residential Child Care or the Certificate of Nursery Nurses Examination Board.

I estimate that between 10 and 15 per cent. of the housemothers and assistant housemothers in local authority children's homes in England and Wales hold the Certificate in the Residential Care of Children, and about 40 per cent. of the staff in residential nurseries the Certificate of the National Nursery Examination Board.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will give figures showing the number of students attending courses leading to the award of the Certificate in Residential Child Care; and whether he will make a statement as to his plans for increasing the number of places on such courses.

The number of students attending basic and advanced courses is at present 328. This will be increased to 420 if there are sufficient suitable applicants.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence he has as to the number of offences involving violence against the person in which alcohol had played a part.

Comprehensive statistics are not available, but there is no doubt that there are a number of offences of violence, including some murders, in which alcohol has played a part.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has now completed his consideration of a new British inquiry into the Munich air disaster of 1958; and whether he will make a statement.

No. I am not yet in a position to make a statement.

asked the President of the Board of Trade how many individuals carrying on business as estate agents were adjudicated bankrupt in the last three years for which figures are available; and how many companies carrying on business as estate agents were wound up and proved insolvent.

15 individuals carrying on business as estate agents were adjudged bankrupt in 1965, 15 in 1966 and 13 in 1967. In addition, in 1965 adjudication orders were made in the case of two partnerships carrying on business as estate agents.Information as to the numbers of companies carrying on business as estate agents which were wound up and proved to be insolvent in the years 1965–67 is not readily available and could not be extracted without an undue expense of time and effort.

asked the President of the Board of Trade why he refers price increases to the National Board for Prices and Incomes; why he ignored the report of the Board against price increases by the International Publishing Corporation; and what action he proposes to take to enforce these price proposals in the same way as wage increases.

References are made where it appears in the national interest that the justification for the increases should be independently examined. As regards the increase in price of the international Publishing Corporation'sDaily MirrorI have nothing to add to the Answer I gave to my hon. Friend on 7th February.—[Vol. 758, c.134.]

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list of Countries which are treated by Her Majesty's Government as developing countries.

I would refer to my reply to the hon. Member on 26th January in which I said there is no classification of countries in this respect which has been generally adopted internationally.While Her Majesty's Government recognise in various ways the special needs of developing countries, there is no definitive list of such countries applicable for all purposes.—[Vol. 757, c.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what action is being taken to bring to the attention of industrialists the availability of advance factories in the development areas.

My Department has for some time been undertaking a publicity campaign in the Press to interest firms in development areas. As part of this compaign it is now proposed to include advertisements drawing attention specifically to the advance factories available in the main development areas. The first of these notices appeared this morning in theFinancial Times.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government when the findings of the public inquiry on the planned expansion of Copper Pass and Son Limited of North Ferriby will be published.

My right hon. Friend expects to issue his decision within a few days.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will now make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's decision regarding a desk study of the Wash Barrage.

Not at present.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will state the numbers and levels of staff in his department engaged on research in connection with the establishment of the European Technological Community; and if he will detail the nature and scale of such research.

My Department participates in inter-Departmental preparation and development of Government proposals relating to European technological co-operation.Officials at various levels are concerned: but their participation in this work accounts for only a part, which it would not be practicable to quantify, of their departmental duties.

asked the Minister of Transport what steps are to be taken to provide a by-pass round Banwell, Somerset, prior to the building of the M5 motorway.

A line for a by-pass of Banwell is included in the Approved County Development Plan. Somerset County Council, as highway authority, do not accord the scheme a high priority in competition with the many other important schemes in the County and there are no grounds for thinking that the by-pass might be constructed before the extension of the M5 motorway to Edithmead.

asked the Minister of Transport whether she is aware of the dangers caused to motorists and others by stationary refuse skip tanks left by builders, demolition firms and others in unlighted and dimly lit roads and streets without warning lights: and whether she will take steps to ensure that these solid iron containers are properly lit during the hours of darkness.

The dangers caused by unlit skips are recognised. It is an offence under the law to leave any building materials, rubbish or other thing in a street at night without properly lighting the obstruction; enforcement of this provision is a matter for highway authorities and the police.

asked the Minister of Transport whether she will publish the Report on compulsory passenger liability insurance submitted to her by the Committee on Motor Insurance as a Factor in Road Safety; and what action she proposes to take on it.

I have today placed copies of the report in the Vote Office. It is an extensive analysis of the problem and I am most grateful to the Committee, and to their Chairman, Sir Harold Kent, for the time and thought they have put into it. No course of action on this problem of passenger liability insurance for motor vehicles is simple. Before reaching a decision myself, I am seeking the views of the organisations most directly concerned. Copies of the Report will be supplied on request to any other organisations who wish to see it and to comment.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what authority inspectors of tax are now assessing companies for Corporation Tax at 42½ per cent. on profits earned after 31st March, 1968.

I assume that the hon. Member is concerned with the corporation tax charge for the financial year 1967 i.e. on profits arising in the twelve months ending on 31st March, 1968. In a statement published on 18th November last, my predecessor announced the Government's intention to propose that the rate of corporation tax for the financial year 1967 should be fixed at 42½ per cent. This proposal will come before the House in due course, but until it does there is no authority for imposing corporation tax at any rate other than the last rate fixed by Parliament i.e. 40 per cent.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) why he instructed officials of his Department to refuse the request of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's working party No. 3 last month in Paris for a statement on the forward quantitative estimates on which Her Majesty's Government are basing their policies;(2) what answer he gave to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's questions put to him in Paris last month as to whether Her Majesty's Government's wages guide level of 3½ per cent. was for wage rates or earnings, and as to how this is to be enforced.

The discussions in this Working Party are confidential.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for maintaining continuous records of the various statistics of invisible earnings which were published in the Bland Report; and whether he will publish these statistics each year.

The Government will take into account the valuable statistics collected in the Report on "Britain's Invisible Earnings", when compiling their future balance of payments estimates; and the effect will probably be to add about £10 million per annum to our previous estimates of the net invisible earnings of the United Kingdom. Arrangements are being made with the assistance of industry and commerce to carry forward these statistical improvements into the estimates for future years. However, it will not always be practicable or necessary to publish the statistics in exactly the same form as in the Report, or to repeat every year all the special inquiries into the earnings of individual industries.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will in future publish gross figures of private invisible earnings and receipts.

Gross figures of most invisible earnings and receipts are published each quarter in Economic Trends, and further detail is published each year in the Balance of Payments Pink Book. In some cases, however, such as merchanting, insurance and certain other financial services it is the difference between payments and receipts which represents a transaction's contribution to the balance of payments, and this is recorded in the statistics.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether protective clothing worn by fishermen while trawling is subject to purchase tax.

Yes—at the lowest rate. Protective clothing worn by fishermen and others in the course of their occupation cannot be distinguished for tax purposes from clothing generally.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what percentage he expects the cost of living to rise in 1968.

Some rise is inevitable because devaluation has raised the cost of imports, but this is not the only consideration and I am not prepared at this stage to give a figure.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek to ensure that any person appointed jointly by himself and the Secretary of State for Wales to take evidence and report upon the question of the establishment of a rural development board in mid-Wales will be proficient in both the Welsh and English languages and that any person wishing to make representations at such an inquiry will be allowed to do so in either English or Welsh.

Yes.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the shortage on establishment in Scotland of male and female probation officers, respectively, broken down into probation areas.

There are no shortages.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the optimium ratio of probation officers to probationers, excluding fine supervision, upon which Government policy is based.

Local probation committees decide their staff complement according to the balance of duties of different kinds in the area, and the ratio of probationers to officers is only one factor. However, the Morison Committee in 1962 suggested that, in so far as reference to caseloads might still be helpful, the standard for a man officer should be 50 cases.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will state his detailed plans for the future of all sections of the Territorial Army

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what size of Army Reserves he is planning now that the United Kingdom security is based on the North Atlantic Alliance.

I would refer the hon. Members to the reply given by my right hon. Friend on 14th February to the hon. Members for St. Albans (Mr. Goodhew) and Loughborough (Mr. Cronin).— [Vol. 758, c. 1326–7.]

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what proportion of members of the British Diplomatic Service are now engaged principally on commercial promotional work, compared with previous years.

It is difficult to make precise comparisons with earlier years, since the unified Diplomatic Service providing our commercial representation in both Commonwealth and foreign countries dates only from 1st January, 1965. The staff in representational grades in the Diplomatic Service now filling full-time commercial posts form 22 per cent. of the total staff in these grades overseas. The comparable percentage for the Foreign Service in 1964 was 18 per cent.; in 1958 it was 15 per cent. This does not include Heads of Mission or Consuls-General much of whose work is largely commercial; nor the large number of staff who are engaged part-time in commercial work.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the places where additional British commercial consular or attaché posts have been created since 1964.

These places (showing additional full-time posts) are:

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many experienced former salesmen or businessmen are at present employed by the British Diplomatic Service.

At present I estimate that approximately 200 career officers in the representational grades have a commercial or industrial background.People with practical commercial or industrial experience are encouraged to compete for posts in the Diplomatic Service, through a scheme for supplementary recruitment open to candidates from 27 to 40 (or in some cases, 45) years old.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what reply he has received from the Chinese Government to his efforts to secure the release of Mr. Anthony Grey; what reasons he has been given for his detention; and what further action he will be taking.

No reply has yet been received from the Chinese to the numerous representations made about Mr. Grey. Nor have we been given any good reasons for his detention, although the Chinese said last year that he had been arrested in retaliation for the arrest and imprisonment in Hong Kong of a New China News Agency journalist, Hsueh P'ing. We consider it totally indefensible to hold an innocent man in this way and we shall continue to do everything we can to secure his release.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs following the recent Report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, what further representations he has made to the Portuguese Government about its increased trade with Rhodesia.

The statistics given in the report to which my hon. Friend refers confirm that there has been a substantial increase in Portuguese trade with Rhodesia. We were aware of this increase when my right hon. Friend the Minister of State replied to a Question by the hon. Member for South Angus (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) on 22nd January; I have nothing to add to his reply.—[Vol. 757, c. 15–17.]

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will make a statement on the preconditions necessary for a successful reconvention of the Geneva Conference on Vietnam.

There are no preconditions except a willingness on the part of those concerned to attend.

asked the Minister of Labour what were the unemployment figures in Scotland in the years 1952 to 1968, respectively, for February, giving a break-up of the figures for male, female and juvenile unemployment in each respective year.

asked the Minister of Labour what percentage of those wholly unemployed in December of each year from 1961 to 1967, inclusive, had been out of work for over eight weeks.

asked the Minister of Labour what proportion of the male insured population in Sutton-in-Ashfield employment exchange area is employed in coal mining.

asked the Minister of Labour what proportion of the male insured population in the Sutton-in-Ashfield employment exchange area is employed at the four collieries of New Hucknall, Kirkby, Silverhill and Annerley.

The mid-1966 estimates of employees in employment showed just over half the male employees in the Sutton-in-Ashfield employment exchange area employed in the coal mining.

The unemployment figures for February, 1968 are not yet available. Following is the information for February in each year from 1952 to 1967 and for January, 1968:industry. As 3rd February, 1968, about one-fifth were employed at the four collieries referred to.

asked the Minister of Labour what was the number of employees in all Index of Production industries, and in manufacturing industries only, in December of each year from 1961 to 1967, inclusive.

Following is the information:

asked the Minister of Labour what sum has been paid under the Redundancy Payments Act to date; and how many have received payment.

Between 6th December, 1965, when the Redundancy Payments Act came into operation and 31st December, 1967, the latest date for which the information is available, a total of £76,805,000 was paid under the Act to 380,476 workers. Of this sum, £19,098,000 was paid by individual employers and £57,707,000 from the Redundancy Fund.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware of the shortage of audiology technicians, and what efforts are being made to train additional staff.

Total numbers increased by about 7 per cent. between 1965 and 1966 (the latest year for which figures are available), but there are local difficulties. In October, 1965 hospital authorities were given advice on the training of Audiology Technicians and Regional Hospital Boards were asked to co-ordinate the training arrangements, which may include instruction in local hospitals, arrangements with technical colleges, or attendance at courses run by the Institute of Laryngology and Otology in London.

asked the Minister of Health (1) how many complaints have been made about doctors by patients since October, 1964; how many of these were considered by the Health Service Board and how many by an independent tribunal; and of these how many were found to be unjustified;(2) what steps he is taking to prevent trivial complaints by patients about doctors.

National Health Service general practitioners in England and Wales are in contract with Executive Councils. Complaints requiring investigation are dealt with by the Medical Service Committee of the Executive Council concerned, and 1,919 such complaints by patients were investigated between 1st October, 1964 and 31st December, 1967. The practitioner was not found in breach of his terms of service in 1,687 cases, more than half of which did not lead to a hearing. The existing procedure provides that if a complaint does not relate to a doctor's terms of service, or is frivolous or vexatious, he is not troubled with it and that in other cases, a hearing need not be held if the facts are satisfactorily established by means of correspondence. I hope soon to issue advice on a new informal procedure for handling complaints by patients which is designed to ensure that formal investigations are carried out only where serious issues arise.During the same period, 12 cases were referred by the Executive Councils to the National Health Service Tribunal, which deals only with the issue whether a practitioner should continue to provide services under Part IV of the National Health Service Act, 1946. In six of these cases, the doctor was allowed so to continue.