asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the total number of rabbit clearance societies registered at the latest available date.

664 Rabbit Clearance Societies were registered in England and Wales on 30th June, 1968.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what was the total cost involved in trials in Bedfordshire this summer in the use of stupefying baits to control woodpigeons;(2) over how many days the trials in Bedfordshire, involving the use of stupefying baits to control woodpigeons, took place this summer; and what were the numbers of woodpigeons taken thereby.

Approximately £980 of which £170 represents the cost of bait and £810 the cost of direction and supervision including all overheads such as travelling and subsistence costs and office expenses. The time of the farmers who participated in these trials has not been included.The trials were spread over 60 days during the course of which 1,393 woodpigeons were caught and humanely killed.

asked the Minister for the Civil Service what is the annual amount now being paid to a Civil Service pensioner who retired in 1951 with £500 per year.

Assuming that he was at least 53 years of age when he retired, £760 to £840 depending on retiring salary and the precise date of retirement.

asked the Minister for the Civil Service whether all Official Paid On Her Majesty's Service envelopes are now being overprinted with a bold black figure 1 in a black-ruled box, as in the case of House of Commons On Her Majesty's Service envelopes used by honourable Members; how much such overprinting has cost; and at what rate were On Her Majesty's Service letters found to travel, under the two-tier postal system, before such overprinting was deemed necessary.

No. Users of Official Paid envelopes have discretion to use the first or second class service according to the urgency of their communication. Only envelopes for use with the first class service are distinguished by a figure I and arrangements for marking this symbol, mostly by rubber stamping but in a few cases by overprinting, have been available from the introduction of the two-tier system. The cost of overprinting averages about 5s. 6d. per thousand envelopes.

asked the Minister for the Civil Service how many members of the Civil Service are in the administrative class; and how many of these are employed in Wales.

2,630 and 27 respectively.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has as to the respective annual defence budget and total forces of the United Kingdom and Rhodesia.

Details of the United Kingdom's defence budget and forces are given in the Statement on the Defence Estimates 1968 (Cmnd. 3540). I have no responsibility for the publication of comparable figures for Rhodesia.

asked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs what progress is being made in the arrangements to set up a Little Neddy for the City.

The proposal rests at present with the T.U.C., who are considering recommending to the National Economic Development Council the formation of an Economic Development Committee for Banking, Insurance and Finance.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he expects to receive the report of the Dainton Committee on the National Library Services.

Early in 1969.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what are the latest numbers of men and women registered under the Disabled Persons Acts; and what proportions these represent of the male and female working population.

On 15th April 1968, there were 562,436 male, and 92,352 female, registered disabled persons; respectively 3·4 and 1·0 per cent. of the male and female working populations.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what are the latest numbers of men and of women registered under the Disabled Persons Acts who are unemployed; and what proportions these represent of the male and female unemployed.

On 9th September 1968, there were 49,584 male and 5,931 female, unemployed registered disabled persons; respectively 11·1 and 6·9 per cent. of total male and total female wholly unemployed. None of these figures include persons considered suitable only for employment under sheltered conditions.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether she will ask the National Board for Prices and Incomes to inquire into the reasons for the continuing high level of imports with particular reference to pricing policies.

A general reference of this kind would not be appropriate, but I and my colleagues are considering whether references of any particular cases to the Board would be helpful.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity (1) on what approximate date she expects the seven years' phased introduction of equal pay to commence;(2) what stage has been reached in the talks on equal pay between herself, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress; how the new phase in the talks differs from the long series of previous talks; and what progress has been made;(3) what progress has now been made in her Department's consideration of the question of equal pay, including the study of the relevant Articles of the Treaty of Rome, further consideration of its scope, definition and cost, its implications in the present economic situation to the prices and incomes policy, and the timing and phasing of future action;(4) if she will make a statement on equal pay, giving details of her policy of including the reform in the criteria of the incomes policy; and if it is Her Majesty's Government's policy that there should be a pay freeze for male workers until women's pay is level in appropriate cases.

The series of discussions which have been held since 1966 between the Government, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress have done much to establish the nature of the practical problems which must be resolved before equal pay can be fully implemented. Last June we decided that we were ready to take a further significant step forward by starting new talks which would look beyond technical problems to the preparation of firm and detailed proposals for action. We subsequently had separate meetings with both the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. to outline our proposals. Following these talks my Department, the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. are co-operating in a joint inquiry to establish the likely cost of equal pay in a number of industries in which it could be expected to have a particular impact. Both the C.B.I. and the T.U.C. are agreed that the results of this study are essential to further discussions of the details of a phased programme of implementation. The inquiry is now well in hand and discussions with the C.B.I. and T.U.C. will be resumed in the New Year. The precise timing of the programme will depend upon the outcome of these further discussions. A pay freeze for male workers is not part of the Government's policy, but voluntary co-operation by men will allow progress towards equal pay within the current incomes policy.

asked the Postmaster-General what he proposes should be the basic charge in public telephone booths after decimalisation.

It is too soon to decide the coinbox or other telephone call charges which will apply after decimalisation. No announcement will be made until the Post Office Users' Council has been consulted.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why the British delegate, having declared that it infringed the responsibilities of Parliament, did not vote against a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in the sense of Nibmar.

The British delegate was instructed to abstain from voting on this resolution because, although Her Majesty's Government could not accept its terms, there has been no change in their position on Nibmar.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish as a White Paper the eventual findings of operation First Look.

As I told my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, West (Mr. Judd) on the 17th of October, the information produced by Exercise "First Look" is at present being analysed. We shall naturally wish to make the results widely known, and I shall in due course consider how this can best be done.—[Vol. 770, c. 170–1.]

asked the Postmaster-General if he is aware that an urgent letter, posted in Central London and addressed to the Minister of Housing and Local Government, took two days to arrive; and if he will take action to improve the postal service.

If the urgency of the letter was made clear by use of the first-class service, and the hon. Gentleman will let me have the envelope, I will gladly look into the matter. Two days is, however, the advertised service for second-class letters.

asked the Postmaster-General what steps the Post Office Giro service has taken in respect of the Southern Gas and Southern Electricity Boards for enrolment in the automatic transfer facilities by Giro; and why these facilities are not available to constituents of the hon. Member for Basingstoke.

Both Boards have opened National Giro accounts for the collection of money from their consumers and the hon. Member's constituents should therefore be able to pay their bills through Giro either by inpayment or by ordinary transfer. I understand that the Boards will consider using the Giro automatic debit transfer service when a sufficient number of their customers request them to do so.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will list those areas in England where he has introduced postal address codes; and when he proposes to introduce them to Bedford.

They have been introduced in Bath, Blackburn, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Bromley, Cambridge, Chester, Coventry, Croydon, Derby, Gloucester, Huddersfield, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Romford, Sheffield, Southampton, Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent, Watford, York and London, W.1.We have no plans for coding Bedford at present but the question will be kept under review.

asked the Minister of Power when he plans to announce the names of the personnel to serve on the appeals committees dealing with claims arising from redundancy payment decisions under the Coal Industry Act 1967.

My right hon. Friend hopes shortly to complete arrangements for setting up advisory bodies to which disputed cases under the Redundant Mineworkers' Payments Scheme Order 1968, not settled after reference to local committees within the industry, can be referred.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what amount is payable in children's allowances and family allowances to a widowed mother with three children after 8th October as compared with before that date; and what, therefore, will be the increase in her income compared with that of a similar size family where the husband is alive and in work.

The amount payable in national insurance dependency allowances and family allowances for a widowed mother with three children remained at £6 16s. 6d. a week after 8th October. She therefore received no increase in total income then; the family of a man in work with three children received an extra 6s. a week in family allowances, but his tax allowances for 1968/69, unlike those of the widowed mother, will previously have been adjusted to take account of the earlier increase in April so that the family's net gain depends on the amount of other income and may be minimal.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is satisfied that old people without pension books are not denied benefits available to pensioners, such as reduced bus fares and cinema ticket concessions; and if he will make a statement.

I am not aware of any general difficulty in this field. The evidence required for the very different kinds of concessions which are offered, some of them of a purely commercial character, is of course, entirely a matter for those who operate them.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will remove the contributions condition which states that contributions must be made for at least half the weeks between a woman's marriage and her 60th birthday, thus preventing some women who have paid contributions for many years before their marriage from receiving any pension.

This special test is a necessary complement to the provisions which enable a married woman to choose either to pay contributions for retirement pension on her own insurance or, instead, to rely upon her husband's insurance for a pension. It is designed to establish whether a woman has seriously intended to rely after marriage on her own insurance rather than her husband's. The position of married women in relation to national insurance is one of the matters which will be discussed in the White Paper to be published this winter.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will remove the three-year length of marriage qualification for receiving widows' benefit for those widowed over the age of 50 years.

This is one of the conditions for widows' benefit which is being considered in the preparation of the new scheme of national insurance.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what amount of money has been paid in the years 1966 and 1967 to women and children who have been granted maintenance allowance by the courts to make up for the failure of these payments.

I regret that this information is not available. However, in June 1967 31,500 of the 70,000 main-

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many families were on the books of his Department in Rhondda at the most recent date whose supplementary benefits were reduced because of the wage stop; and how these figures compare with those for the corresponding date last year.

On 20th August of this year 175, and on 26th September 1967—the nearest comparable date—283. These figures relate to Rhondda Municipal Borough and surrounding localities.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland through which of his departments he exercises his general responsibilities in relation to the Highlands and Islands Development Board.

Because of the increasing relevance: of many of the Board's opera- tenance orders and 9,000 of the 18,000 affiliation orders held by women in receipt of supplementary benefit were being complied with regularly.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many unemployed persons were on the books of his Department in Rhondda, Wales and Great Britain, respectively, at the most recent date who had exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefit; how many of them were receiving supplementary allowances; and how these figures compare with those for the corresponding date last year.

The information requested is as follows:tions to the functions of the Scottish Development Department, I have arranged in future to discharge these responsibilities through that Department instead of through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what quantities of C.S. gas and devices containing C.S. gas have been exported by Civil Protection Limited since that company was formed; and to what countries.

C.S. gas and devices containing C.S. gas are not separately distinguished in the trade statistics, and it is not Government policy to give details of the export trade of individual businesses.

asked the President of the Board of Trade, what licences have been granted to Civil Protection Limited to sell to overseas customers supplies of C.S. gas and of devices containing C.S. gas.

It is not the practice to disclose information about the issue of export licences to individual firms.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will take steps to make it obligatory for the price per unit to be displayed where goods are sold by quantity, before the introduction of metric measures.

I do not think it would be appropriate to impose this obligation generally, but if in a particular case no better means can be found to enable the shopper to compare prices, I should be prepared to consider whether such a requirement would be practicable.

asked the Minister of Transport if he will give a general direction to the British Railways Board to maintain the provision of sleeper accommodation on overnight trains; and if he will make a statement.

No. This is a matter of management for the Railways Board.

asked the Minister of Transport whether he is in possession of the views of the Greater London Council and other boroughs affected by the delayed decision on the route of the D-ring Road.

asked the Minister of Transport when a decision on the D-ring Road will be announced, in view of the fact that further delay is causing hardship and concern to many householders and shopkeepers in the constituency of Harrow, West.

We expect to announce a decision later this month.

asked the Minister of Transport whether he will now give an assurance that he does not intend to remove the ban on learner-drivers using motorways.

Hon. Members will recall that in May of this year I invited interested organisations to consider whether the present ban on the use of motorways by learner drivers should now be removed, and to let me have their views. The bulk of opinion was against an unqualified removal of the ban and, in the light of these views and the reasons given for them I have decided not to make any change in the present arrangements.

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many bridges crossing the Brecon-Monmouthshire Canal have recently had load-carrying restrictions placed upon them; by what authority; and what steps are to be taken to bring them to the standard required for normal traffic.

For the safety of vehicles and people using the bridges, the Breconshire County Council as the highway authority has imposed temporary weight restrictions on 18 bridges crossing this canal. Remedial work has already started on one bridge; the British Waterways Board will be arranging for work on the others to be done as quickly as possible on a priority basis agreed with the highway authority.