asked the President of the Board of Trade what percentage of imports, free on board values, he expects to be covered by exports, free on board values, in 1969.

I would refer the hon. Member to the forecast included in the Financial Statement to be published later this afternoon.

asked the President of the Board of Trade to what extent a colliery closure has been the main criterion for the designation of a special development area.

The existence or prospect of high levels of unemployment resulting from colliery closures has always been the main criterion for the designation of special development areas.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will seek to simplify the fishing laws for the benefit of overseas tourists.

I have no reason to believe that overseas visitors find the present legislation unduly complex.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will introduce a system of access orders for brown trout fishing.

This is one of the main recommendations of the Hunter Report which my right hon. Friend is at present considering: I cannot at this stage forecast the outcome of his examination of it.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is now his estimate of the date when the Report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland will be published.

The Commission is now in process of drafting its Report. I understand that while publication in the early summer is not now possible the Report should be published later in the summer.

asked the Minister of Technology if he will make a statement on the action taken by his Department regarding the new Laces computer to be installed at London Airport; and when the contract will be placed.

Because this is an important development in the use of computers we have been in touch with my right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General from time to time about this project. I understand that it is likely that a contract will be placed shortly.

asked the Minister of Technology if he will make a further statement on progress over negotiations for a prototype nuclear propelled merchant ship.

In the light of information received from shipbuilders and others, we have decided to make a study of probable costs and benefits of Government support for a nuclear ship project. We shall talk to interested parties during the course of the study.

asked the Minister for the Civil Service by what criteria is the efficiency of members of the boards of nationalised undertakings evaluated; and how many of such members have been dismissed on grounds of inefficiency since 1945.

The Minister responsible assesses the effectiveness of each individual Board member in carrying out his duties, as may be necessary, taking account of advice from the Chairman of the Board. None has been dismissed for inefficiency since 1945.

asked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT, giving for the latest convenient date a list of chairmen of boards and other authorities and organisations appointed by the Government where payment is made for such appointments, the individual payments in each case, and the total annual costs inclusive of pension rights; and what is the estimated effect on these figures of the National Board for Prices and Incomes proposals in the current calendar year.

The names and salaries of the chairmen of public boards of a commercial character as at 1st November, 1968 are given in the White Paper on Public Boards published last December (Cmnd. 3857). The total annual cost of the salaries of the chairmen of those boards mentioned in paragraph 87 of the recent N.B.P.I. report, excluding the British Steel Corporation, is £319,750 at present. This will increase by £29,200 in the current calendar year as a result of the first stage increases recommended by the N.B.P.I. It is not possible to assess the total value of pension rights or the effect on them in the current year of the N.B.P.I. proposals without disproportionate labour.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to obtain the views of the nursing profession on the Pay as You Eat scheme; and what proposals he has for remedying the position.

The scheme was negotiated by the Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council, the Staff Side of which comprises organisations representative of the nursing profession. Any review of the agreement would be a matter for the council.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services to what extent Carlton Hayes Hospital and other psychiatric hospitals are understaffed; and what he is doing to improve staff recruitment in Leicestershire.

At Carlton Hayes Hospital all medical staff posts were filled, and there were 36 nursing and 22 other staff vacancies at the latest date for which figures are available; comparable information about other psychiatric hospitals is not readily available; the Leicester Area Hospitals Careers Committee set up for the purpose in 1966 is using a variety of methods to stimulate recruitment in Leicestershire.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the shortage of hearing aids available for the Bristol area; how many of the components were destroyed in the September, 1968, floods in the West Country; what are the current reserve stocks of Medresco hearing aids available for the area; by how much the normal requirement stocks have been reduced by his Department; and whether he will make a statement.

There is no shortage in the Bristol area of the aid most commonly used; about 12 patients in the area waiting for special purpose aids; the entire stock of 9,000 battery screens needed for the manufacture and repair of one of the special aids was lost in the floods in the South East (not in the West Country); at the end of March the two distribution centres in Bristol had combined stocks of 512 aids; stocks have not been reduced by action of the Department.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total of money given from public funds as grants for research into management problems; and which Departments, other than the Department of Education and Science, allocate money for these purposes.

I regret that the information requested could be made available only after a disproportionate expenditure of time and money.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has considered the memorandum submitted to him by the General Council of the Bar and others concerning the retirement provision for persons in professional practice in relation to the Government's pensions proposals; what reply he has sent; and if he will make a statement.

I am studying this memorandum and hope to receive a deputation about it shortly.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek powers to set up a Tax Law Revision Committee with representatives from the Inland Revenue, the professions concerned, and some academics with a view to completing the consolidation of tax law as soon as possible, studying existing tax law and recommending simplification and improvements, and studying any new tax law enacted by Parliament and making similar recommendations.

I do not think that a committee of this kind is the right way of achieving these objectives.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he now expects the first activation of Special Drawing Rights to take place.

I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Royton (Mr. Barnett).

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will now make a statement on his plans to finance the repayment of Her Majesty's Government's external indebtedness between now and the end of 1970;(2) what is the date and purpose of the next visit of inspection to London by a team from the International Monetary Fund.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) why Her Majesty's Government are unable to repay their debts to the International Monetary Fund due in 1969 and 1970; and if he will publish after his dicussions with the International Monetary Fund Mission on 16th April, 1969, the terms on which repayment has been postponed and the penalties attached to this postponement;(2) if he will publish the data upon which he bases his forecast that the International Monetary Fund debts due for repayment in 1969 and 1970 will be paid in the next few years during which he proposes fund the debt.

On the general question of overseas indebtedness I have nothing to add to my right hon. Friend's Budget Statement. With regard to the International Monetary Fund I refer the hon. Members to the replies I gave to the hon. Members for Louth (Sir C. Osborne) and West Ham, North (Mr. Arthur Lewis), on 1st April.—[Vol. 781, c. 61–62.]

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what arrangements exist for him to ascertain what sums of money exceeding the currency allowance of £50 are taken out of the sterling area by United Kingdom residents holding passports issued by the Republic of Ireland.

The restrictions apply equally to all who are resident for exchange control purposes of the United Kingdom, irrespective of the passport they hold. The authorities in the other sterling area countries co-operate to prevent evasion of the restrictions by United Kingdom residents.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what further payments are to be made by the Irish Government under the financial provisions of the 1925 Agreement between Great Britain and Ireland.

Under the 1925 Agrement, the Irish Government undertook to pay an initial sum of £150,000 and sixty annual payments of £250,000 to recompense the British Government for the cost of compensation for damage to property in Ireland. So far £10·9 million has been paid; outstanding payments total £4·25 million, the final payment being due in 1985. In the light of the origin and purpose of these arrangements and the development of relations between the two countries, in recent discussions between United Kingdom and Irish Ministers the Government have told the Irish Government that they are prepared to waive the remaining payments due under the Agreement.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list those county boroughs that had more than 2 per cent. immigrant schoolchildren at the latest available date.

The latest available figures are those (for January, 1968) given in an Answer to my hon. Friend on 5th December, 1968.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will seek to make special funds available for postgraduate students in management and business studies.

The Department provides bursaries for postgraduate students at the London and Manchester Business Schools; and I understand that the Social Science Research Council is continuing to give priority to these subjects in allocating awards.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will set out in full the reasons which led her to decide that it is not feasible to make transfer of pension rights a statutory requirement even between comparable schemes.

As the Prime Minister announced today in a written reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesend (Mr. Murray), I have now taken over from my right hon. Friend the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity responsibility for developing the White Paper proposals on the preservation of occupational pension rights. I have, therefore, been asked to reply to this Question.To impose a statutory requirement of the sort envisaged by the hon. Member would involve defining what were to be regarded for this purpose as comparable schemes. Having regard to the detailed differences between even schemes similarly structured, I am not satisfied that this could be done effectively in this context; nor that a statutory scale of transfer values could be laid down which would be fair in all cases as between one scheme and another; nor that the basis on which the pension rights transferred were to be adapted to the rules of the receiving scheme could be defined with sufficient precision. As to laying down the basis of financial adjustments between the transferring and receiving scheme, it has to be recognised that in, for example, a final salary scheme, the cost to the receiving scheme would be liable to depend upon the employee's future earnings.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether the inquiry into the costs of introducing equal pay in specific industries which is being conducted by her Department and the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry has now been completed; and if she will make a statement.

The inquiry is expected to be completed within the next few weeks. Further talks with industry will then be arranged.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity when the results of the Government's study of the possibilities of a comprehensive revision of the Factories Act, 1961 and the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act with a view to embodying these Acts into one single piece of legislation can be expected; and if she will make a statement.

I am not yet able to say. Consultations with Government Departments and other interested bodies are going ahead as quickly as the complexity of the subject will allow.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what compensation terms in addition to their normal entitlement under the 1943 Act, he will offer to those senior diplomatic service officers who will be compulsorily retired.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the replies my right hon. Friend gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, East (Mr. Robert Howarth) on 26th March and the bon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Eldon Griffiths) on 28th March.All those officers being retired before reaching their personal retiring age will receive an enhanced pension in accordance with the provisions originally enacted in the 1943 Foreign Service Act and now consolidated in the Superannuation Act 1965. The majority will, however, have passed their personal minimum retiring age, but their pensions will be enhanced to take account of service in certain scheduled posts overseas.In addition to these superannuation benefits, all officers retired from posts overseas will receive six months' paid re-settlement leave in addition to ordinary leave which has not been taken. The payment of boarding school allowances for children will be continued for a period in appropriate circumstances to officers being retired unexpectedly from posts either at home or abroad.—[Vol. 780, c. 318–19. 368–9.]

asked the Minister of Overseas Development what financial aid is to be provided to the Ghana Government in the year 1969–70.

The first instalment of British aid to Ghana in 1969–70 is a loan of £2,000,000 which was the subject of an agreement signed in Accra on 10th April. This interest-free loan has a maturity of twenty-five years and will be used for the purchase of British goods and services and for development projects to be agreed between the two countries.A further amount will be made available after the international meeting on aid to Ghana sponsored by the International Monetary Fund which begins in Paris on 20th May.After taking into account the carryover of disbursements from the 1968 loan, British financial aid to Ghana in 1969–70 is expected to total about £4,000,000.

asked the Postmaster-General why copies of the speech of the Chairman of the National Coal Board made on 26th March in Londonderry, to be checked against delivery and posted by first-class mail in London on 24th March, did not reach Londonderry until 27th March.

We do not keep records of the movement of individual letters through the post, and as the envelopes are not available I have been unable to confirm that the letters were posted at the first class rate or to make any useful inquiries.

asked the Attorney-General when the police first commenced their inquiries into the practice known as cube-cutting; why their report has not yet been submitted; and when action will be taken.

Police inquiries began on 12th February. Persons who may be able to assist the investigation are still being interviewed and there are numerous documents to be examined. The question of taking action cannot be considered until the investigation is completed. When this will be will depend upon the progress of the inquiries.

asked the Minister of Power what were the combined overdrafts of the gas, electricity, steel and coal industries with the banks at 1st January, 1969 and at the present time, respectively.

Figures for their temporary bank borrowing at the end of March, 1969 will be published in the annual accounts of the gas, electricity and coal industries for 1968–69. The B.S.C.'s accounts show its position at the end of September. Figures showing temporary bank borrowings at 31st March for each of the industries are also published in "Finance Accounts of the United Kingdom" in the autumn.Figures showing the industries' temporary borrowings at other times are not normally published, but a monthly total for all the nationalised industries is published in Tables 35 and 36 of "Financial Statistics".

asked the Minister of Power if he will give his latest estimate of the delay in completing the Dungeness nuclear power station and his estimate of the annual cost to the Central Electricity Generating Board arising from the delay.

As I told my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, Central (Mr. Palmer) on 11th February—[Vol. 777, c. 1102.]—the first reactor may be delayed by at least 18 months and the second by a year. The Central Electricity Generating Board informs me that estimates of the cost of delay cannot be readily broken down to individual stations or types of stations.

asked the Minister of Power what percentage of annual production is represented by the most recent figures for undistributed stocks of deep-mined and opencast coal, respectively.

On 29th March, 1969, 14 per cent. and 59 per cent.