asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how the Inner London education authority will be represented within the London inner city partnerships following the abolition of the Greater London council; and whether his Department will take on a more central role within London's inner city partnerships in view of the new power it will acquire over the budget and staffing levels of the Inner London education authority.

While it will be for the new education authority for inner London to decide what role it will play in the inner city partnerships in its area, there is no reason for supposing that it will not wish to participate in the same way as ILEA. The authority's total expenditure will be subject to certain constraints, but within that total it will remain free to determine the priority it gives to partnership expenditure; that implies no change in the role of the DES in relation to the inner London partnerships.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science for what reason the city of Birmingham was unable to complete its 1982 school meals census return; and whether he will now take steps to require it to do so.

School clerical staff were involved in industrial action during the period when LEAs were asked to complete the October 1982 returns and no count could therefore be made. As the information for the relevant period was not collected no purpose would be served in requiring the authority to submit a return. A return was made by Birmingham in respect of October 1983.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what was the number of full-time undergraduate students at Leeds university for the academic years 1978–79 and 1983–84, respectively;(2) what was the number of full-time undergraduate students at Leeds polytechnic for the academic years 1978–79 and 1983–84.

The figures for full-time and sandwich undergraduate students are as follows:

	1978–79	1983–84 (provisional)
Leeds university	8,431	8,820
Leeds polytechnic	2,781	3,865

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many residential places were available for children in local authority homes and registered voluntary homes in 1983 and in each year from 1979.

Information for the years 1979 to 1982 is given below; the comparable figures for 1983 are not yet available.

Type of home	Number of children*
	1979	1980	1981	1982
Community Home under Child Care Act 1980	1,579	1,445	1,295	1,241
Voluntary	150	153	99	73
* At 31 March

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals he has for improving bus services in rural mid-Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Responsibility for the co-ordination of local public passenger transport including bus services lies with the county councils. It is for them to consider the standard of bus services in their areas and the introduction where necessary of other modes of public transport such as social car services or post buses. As my hon. Friend told the hon. Gentlemen in the Welsh Grand Committee on 22 February, these matters can be discussed further in the context of the proposed consultation paper.

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the total number of family aides, expressed in whole-time equivalents, employed in Wales.

At 30 September 1983, the figure was 3268·6.

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many homes were provided by housing associations in Wales for each of the years 1979–80 until 1983–84; what is the predicted start number of such homes for 1984–85; what was the amount of cash made available to housing associations in Wales in 1982–83; and what is the expected cash for 1984–85 in real terms.

The amount of cash made available to housing associations in Wales was £44·9 million in 1982–83 and is expected to be around £39 million in 1984–85. Information requested relating to the provision of homes is given in the table.

Homes Provided (New Build and Rehabilitation)
	Numbers
1979–80	1,500
1980–81	1,200
1981–82	2,300
1982–83	2,100
1983–84*	1,600
* Provisional

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many people were in employment in Wales in June 1983.

Estimates of the number of employees in employment are best obtained from the statistics compiled by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment. The most recent revised estimate, which will be published in the Employment Gazette later in the month, is 893,000. This figure does not include the self-employed.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will define the term national security when used in official publications and Government statements.

This term has been in general use for many years in a variety of contexts and is generally understood to refer to the safeguarding of the state and the community against threats to their survival or well-being. I am not aware that any previous Administration have thought it appropriate to adopt a specific definition of the term.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department who will meet the cost of police activity in connection with the current miners' dispute.

The cost will be shared between police authorities and central Government.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report particulars of the recent European Economic Community decision to extend the area covered by hill-farming or deprived area farming subsidies and, in particular, the number of additional cattle and sheep affected, the number of holdings, the estimated size distribution of holdings, and the amount of extra subsidy expected at the present rate in a full year.

The recent decision by the Council of Ministers to extend the United Kingdom's less favoured areas adds 1·2 million hectares of land to the 8·65 million hectares originally designated in 1975. This means that about 53 per cent. of the United Kingdom's total utilisable agricultural area is now designated as less favoured. The extension enables the Government to provide the additional aid my right hon. Friend announced on 30 November last to farmers in the new areas who farm under permanent natural handicaps. No information is available on size distribution of holdings in the newly designated areas. However, estimates of the other data requested are as follows:

	United Kingdom
Number of beef cattle	110,000
Number of sheep	1,025,000
Number of holdings	28,600

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report particulars of the land which has been reclaimed for agricultural use each year since 1979 with the aid of public subsidies and grants.

I regret that the information requested is not available.Grant for the reclamation of land is available under this Ministry's capital grant schemes but most of the expenditure under this heading is for the improvement of land which is already in agricultural use. Grants for the reclamation or restoration of non-agricultural land to agricultural use are available under other legislation, for which I am not responsible.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1954 the amount of sugar from beet produced in the United Kingdom, together with the amount of sugar imported from the European Economic Community and the rest of the world and the corresponding figures for exports, all in terms of white sugar equivalent.

The information requested is as follows:

'000 tonnes wse
Year	Sugar produced	Sugar imported		Sugar exported
		from EC	rest of world	to EC	rest of world
1954	595·5	—	—	—	—
1955	638·3	—	—	—	—
1956	709·4	—	—	—	—
1957	567·3	—	—	—	—
1958	734·1	—	—	—	—
1959	785·7	—	—	—	—
1960	901·8	—	—	—	—
1961	772·6	—	—	—	—
1962	697·5	—	—	—	—
1963	750·8	10·4	2,473·4	128·8	310·2
1964	943·4	7·7	2,235·0	150·5	300·8
1965	859·7	3·0	2,076·6	11·2	295·9
1966	861·2	1·4	2,148·0	25·6	281·8
1967	887·3	6·2	2,120·0	43·4	288·5
1968	897·6	53·5	1,941·9	17·9	191·3
1969	860·3	35·0	2,072·6	2·4	204·4
1970	960·7	107·6	1,936·8	5·5	190·7
1971	1,086·3	45·8	2,024·6	4·5	239·8
1972	886·5	43·8	2,061·6	7·7	300·5
1973	963·3	121·5	1,776·0	5·7	280·2
1974	568·2	800·0	1,532·7	5·5	385·5
1975	641·4	320·2	1,544·4	12·9	204·2
1976	695·3	387·3	1,562·0	4·6	212·6
1977	949·2	296·4	1,324·0	5·0	159·0
1978	1,022·5	206·0	1,165·3	5·0	81·0
1979	1,154·2	212·0	1,137·9	8·4	65·0
1980	1,105·8	140·1	1,149·1	7·5	89·3
1981	1,092·2	168·7	1,089·6	13·7	101·8
1982	1,418·2	176·6	835·4	9·3	359·1

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1954 the amount of milk produced for sale through milk marketing schemes and the amount sold for manufacture, together with the amount used on farms.

Information dating back to 1954 can be obtained from "Dairy Facts and Figures". This is published annually by the Federation of United Kingdom Milk Marketing Boards and copies are available in the Library of the House. In the most recent edition the information is given in table 67 and covers the years 1979 to 1982.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1954 average weekly earnings and average hourly earnings for all hired regular whole time male workers aged 20 years and over as a percentage of adult male earnings of manual workers generally.

The information requested is as follows:

Agricultural workers' earnings (England and Wales) as a percentage of those of manual workers in all industries (United Kingdom)
Year	Per week	Per Hour
	per cent.	per cent.
1954	71·8	67·3
1955	70·7	66·2
1956	70·1	66·1
1957	71·5	66·3
1958	73·7	67·7
1959	73·1	68·1
1960	70·2	65·7
1961	70·5	65·1
1962	70·7	65·3
1963	71·5	65·9
1964	70·0	65·0
1965	67·9	63·8
1966	71·3	66·7
1967	70·6	65·9
1968	69·3	65·3
1969	69·8	65·9
1970	66·3	62·7
1971	68·1	63·6
1972	66·1	61·9
1973	67·5	64·3
1974	71·0	69·0
1975	72·4	67·9
1976	75·4	72·4
1977	75·2	71·4
1978	74·0	70·7
1979	74·3	69·9
1980	76·5	71·2
1981	77·3	71·0
1982	77·8	71·6
1983	79·1	72·7

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his reply dated 5 March, Official Report columns 437–39, concerning financial support for the growing of field beans, whether he will provide the same information for dried peas, together with details in each case of the minimum producer price and the amount of the subsidy per ton for home supply and export to third countries.

A Community aid is paid on dried peas used both for animal feed and for human consumption, provided a minimum producer price has been paid—currently £180·59 per tonne. No separate Community expenditure figures for peas are available; provisional forecasts of Community expenditure in 1983 on dried peas and beans was 84·6 mecu—£50 million—of which £11 million was spent in the United Kingdom. The rates of aid, which very with world prices, are currently:

Animal feed peas—£70·89; human consumption—£33·65

These rates of aid are paid on peas produced and processed in the Community regardless of the destination of the final product. Dried peas are used in the United Kingdom for animal feed and for human consumption. In 1983 production was 142,140 tonnes, valued at £27 million. Exports to other member states were 6,388 tonnes valued at £1·9 million and exports to third countries were 16,362 tonnes valued at £5·3 million.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his written reply of 5 March, Official Report, column 437, concerning subsidies to the production of rape seed, whether he will publish in the Official Report the information showing the subsidy per tonne produced, the intervention price, the market price per tonne, the average amount of export restitutions per tonne in 1983 on exports to non-European Economic Community countries and the United Kingdom price of the products for which rape seed oil has become a substitute.

The subsidy on rape seed crushed in the United Kingdom in 1983 varied between £56·47 and £165·69 per tonne. the intervention price during that year varied between £260·64 per tonne and £285·04 per tonne but no rape seed was taken into intervention in that period. Information on market prices for rape seed were give in the "Annual Review of Agriculture 1984"—Cmnd. 9137—a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. No United Kingdom rape seed was exported with the aid of export refunds in 1983. Rape seed oil can substitute for a number of other oils, the most important of which is soya oil. According to the public ledger, the price of crude soya oil in the United Kingdom was £269 per tonne on 5 January 1983 and £472 per tonne on 21 December 1983.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what occasions British relief agencies have been instructed at any time in the past three months to cease temporarily the shipment of relief supplies to Ethiopia through either of the Red sea ports of Massawa and Assab; and what reasons were given for these instructions by the Ethiopian Government.

I know of no such instructions, although the flow of material through the port is liable to interruption.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what aid has been sought from the European Economic Community to help the development of the Falkland Islands.

A total of 478,000 ecu—some £284,000—has been allocated to the Falkland Islands from the fourth and fifth European development funds. In addition, 300,000 ecu—some £178,000—of emergency aid was provided for rehabilitation following the hostilities in 1982. The European Investment Bank has also provided 200,000 ecu—some £119,000—for a salmon-ranching study. No further aid is currently being sought.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government have provided any financial assistance to alleviate the suffering of displaced persons in El Salvador.

On 6 March I approved a grant for £100,000 to be made available immediately as emergency aid to the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development to buy relief items for displaced families and orphans in El Salvador.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total aid budget in the financial years 1983–84 and 1984–85; and how much of this is allocated to (a) multilateral aid, (b) bilateral aid and (c) the Commonwealth Development Corporation.

The gross aid programme for 1983–84 is £1,110 million and for 1984–85 £1,174 million. The gross aid programme comprises voted expenditure and certain items of attributed expenditure, essentially the United Kingdom share of overseas aid financed from the European Community budget. Taking account of both voted provision and attributed items, the multilateral: bilateral split in 1983–84 is estimated at £480 million:£630 million. Similar figures for 1984–85 are not available at this stage due to the unallocated section—£110 million—of the Overseas Aid Vote. Excluding this, the split would be £468 million multilateral:£596 million bilateral.The bilateral figures include provision for the Commonwealth Development Corporation of £37 million in 1983–84 and £39 million proposed in the Main Estimates for 1984–85.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what contributions the United Kingdom has made for the "pound for pound" scheme during each year since its inception; and what contributions he expects or intends to make under that scheme during 1984.

[pursuant to his reply, 24 January 1984, c. 499]: Subject to parliamentary approval, the allocation for the "pound for pound" scheme in 1984–85 will be £2,590,000.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if the Department of Education in Northern Ireland has inspected the Irish language school in west Belfast; whether the inspection showed it to be satisfactory; and if he intends to make grant aid available to it.

Bunscoil Ghaelach, Shaws Road, Belfast, has been inspected on a number of occasions by the inspectorate of the Department of Education for Northern Ireland. The last general inspection, in April 1982, found that the standard of education was generally satisfactory.The Department is considering a statutory development proposal to have the school recognised as a grant-aided primary school.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will provide financial assistance to maintain the current level of teaching of Irish Gaelic in Northern Ireland.

Curricular provision for Irish Gaelic is a matter for each school authority. There is no reason to suppose that the present level of teaching will not be maintained.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what were the estimated costs per place per week in the different types of penal establishments in Northern Ireland in 1982–83.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Bruinvels) on 31 January 1984, at column 177.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Belfast have exhausted their right to unemployment benefit; and what percentage of the unemployed population in Belfast they represent.

At 12 May 1983, the latest date for which information is available, in the six social security offices which serve the Belfast area, 12,590 people had exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefit. This represents 39 per cent. of the unemployed population in those social security office areas.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in what subjects there is a shortage of trained teachers in Northern Ireland; and what consideration has been give to the designing of special courses to attract mature teachers into these subject areas.

There is no shortage of trained teachers in any subject for which there is an appreciable demand.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what proportion of young people between 16 and 19 years of age in full-time education in Northern Ireland undertook that education in further education colleges at the latest date; and what are the comparable figures for each of the previous five years.

The information is as follows:

Academic Year	Per cent.
1982–83	26·8
1981–82	24·8
1980–81	23·5
1979–80	21·1
1978–79	21·0
1977–78	20·5

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what are the most recent figures for the numbers of strip searches in Armagh prison; and how many are being carried out on each woman;(2) why some women in Armagh prison are being strip-searched more often than others.

I shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many strip searches were made of female prisoners in Her Majesty's prison, Armagh, in the months of January and February, respectively; if he will give the number of persons involved and the number of times each prisoner was searched; and whether any prison contraband, smuggled items or illegal correspondence was discovered in any of the searches, indicating which items and in how many cases prisoners refused to be so searched and had to be restrained whilst the search was being conducted.

[pursuant to his reply, 21 March 1984, c. 496]: During January, 17 strip searches were carried out on 13 women prisoners. During February, 39 such searches were carried out on 21 women. Individual prisoners were searched the following number of times:

	Number of prisoners	Number of searches in each case
January	4	2
	9	1
February	2	4
	1	3
	10	2
	8	1

No prohibited articles were found during these searches, and no prisoner refused to be searched.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what information he has as to whether the advice of the Northern Ireland Fire Service was sought and the recommendations made by the fire service were followed in the cases of the leisure centres built in Northern Ireland.

I shall reply to the hon. Gentleman as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what dates he expects the meeting in Geneva to discuss attacks on Vietnamese refugees in the South China sea to take place.

The meeting has been postponed. We hope that fresh dates will be announced shortly.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the response of the Chilean authorities to the British request that the Nazi war criminal, Rauff, be expelled to face trial in the Federal Republic of Germany; and what further steps will be taken by Her Majesty's Government over this matter.

The Chilean authorities have rejected our request for Rauff to be expelled from Chile so that he could stand trial in the Federal Republic of Germany. We are studying the terms of the Chilean reply to our representations and will be considering what further steps might be appropriate.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the basis of the United Kingdom's claim to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands; and from when such documentary evidence as there is dates.

The United Kingdom title to the Falkland Islands is derived from early settlement, reinforced by formal claims in the name of the Crown and completed by continuous and effective occupation for over 150 years. The exercise of sovereignty by the United Kingdom over the islands has, furthermore, consistently been shown to accord with the freely expressed wishes, through their elected representatives, of the people who form their permanent population.The earliest documentary evidence relevant to our title to the Falkland Islands dates from the 1760s.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentage of the land in the Falklands is now owned by companies registered overseas.

I am consulting the Falkland Islands Government and will write to my hon. Friend.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his written reply dated 20 December 1983, Official Report, column 156, concerning the United Kingdom's value added tax own resources payments, whether he will now include the United Kingdom figure for 1983, together with the actual cash payment gross and net in each year from 1979 onwards.

Further to my written reply on 20 December 1983, at column 156, I regret that I am still not yet able to give the hon. Member a definitive figure for 1983. It is not possible, because of the need to assemble accounting and statistical data, to calculate the United Kingdom VAT base for any year before June of the following year.The gross and net payments to the European Communities in each year since 1979 are set out in the table:

Year	Gross payment	Net payment
	£ million	£ million
1979	1,606	947
1980	1,767	706
1981	2,174	397
1982	2,863	605
1983	2,976	685

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue it is estimated will be gained from his decision to bring employers' subsidised nurseries into taxation.

My right hon. Friend has made no decision to bring employers' subsidised nurseries into taxation. The benefit that directors and certain employees—currently those earning at a rate of £8,500 a year or more—receive from most employer-subsidised nurseries has been liable to tax since legislation introduced by the Labour Government in 1948, and subsequently amended by the Labour Government in 1976. I regret, however, that information on which to base an estimate of the revenue from taxing this particular benefit is not available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many physically handicapped and disabled people are employed, in what position, in his Department; and what percentage of the total number of employees this represents.

On 1 June 1983 the number of registered disabled persons employed by Her Majesty's Treasury was 59. This was 1·48 per cent. of the total number of employees at that date. The table sets out the breakdown by grade of the 59 registered disabled employees:

	Numbers in Grade
Senior Executive Officer	3
Higher Executive Officer	6
Executive Officer	5

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the cost of introducing a basic income guarantee scheme under the terms of which the sum of gains made by the gainers was in balance with the sum of the losses suffered by the losers through the introduction of the scheme; and where the main items of additional expense would be incurred.

I shall let my hon. Friend have a reply as soon as possible.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the proportion of Argentine foreign debt held by British banks and other British creditors.

I shall let my hon. Friend have a reply as soon as possible.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has determined a new financial objective for the Royal Mint.

Yes. In accordance with the Government Trading Funds Act 1973, a new financial objective has been determined for the Royal Mint covering the period 1 April 1984 to 31 March 1987. A Treasury minute stipulating the new objective is being laid today. The objective is to achieve an annual rate of return which, when averaged over the period as a whole, will be equal to not less than 12 per cent. per annum in real terms.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the cost to the Exchequer of value added tax zero rating on national daily newspapers.

[pursuant to his reply, 22 March 1984, c. 532]: It is estimated that the revenue yield from applying VAT at the standard rate of 15 per cent. to national daily newspapers would be about £125 million a year.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to lay on the Table his observations on the petition of Anthony John Miller, presented to the House on Friday 16 December.

[pursuant to his reply, 22 March 1984, c. 530]: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer laid his response on the Table yesterday.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what indices of deprivation are taken into account in the allocation of the inner city partnership funds to Lambeth.

The key indicators of deprivation which are taken into account with other factors in determining allocations to the inner city partnerships are as follows:

i. Unemployed people

ii. Overcrowded households

iii. Single parent households

iv. Households lacking exclusive use of basic amenities

v. Pensioners living alone

vi. Population change

vii. Standardised mortality rate, ie the ratio of the locally adjusted death rate to the national rate

viii. Low-skilled economically active persons

ix. Residents living in households of which the head of the household was born in the New Commonwealth or Pakistan.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the cost of the improvements undertaken on Ascension Island to Ministry of Defence facilities; and what is their extent.

The PSA is responsible for building and improving the facilities required by the Ministry of Defence on Ascension Island and completed a new camp for RAF personnel on the island in December 1983 at a cost of £18 million. This replaced the temporary, inadequate and scattered accommodation used previously. Work is in hand to upgrade a number of operational facilities at Wideawake airfield at a cost of about £30 million.

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he can now issue his letter of guidance on the implications of the M25 for future development and land use policies in the south-east; and if he will make a statement.

Yes. I have today sent Lord Sandford, chairman of the standing conference on London and south-east regional planning, a final version of the letter I sent in draft form on 18 September last. I have placed a copy in the Library. The proposed guidance was generally welcomed by the standing conference and I am grateful for its comments, which were taken into account in preparing the final version.

asked the Prime Minister what is the planning regime for the seabed in waters up to territorial limits; and whether it is her intention to take steps to appoint a body with statutory powers to deal with it.

There is no general planning regime for the seabed off the United Kingdom coast, although in a few cases local authorities' planning powers may cover adjacent waters.The then Secretary of State for Transport, in a statement on 12 May 1983, said that the Government accept, in principle, that new statutory powers will be needed; their broad purpose would be to establish controls over offshore industrial projects of the kind which already apply to similar developments on land. Such controls would enable the environmental and amenity aspects to be taken into account and bring the procedures for consideration within ministerial control. I would not envisage the appointment of a body with statutory powers to deal with problems of this sort. The detailed form that this legislation might take is still under consideration.

asked the Prime Minister whether there is enough foundry capacity of the right kind to enable the United Kingdom to rely on its own resources to equip the armed services in the event of total war using conventional weapons.

As the hon. Member has already been informed, there is a significant under-utilisation of foundry capacity in the United Kingdom. No assessment has been made of this hypothetical situation, but we are satisfied that there is no threat to the supply of equipment the armed forces need for their foreseeable tasks.

asked the Prime Minister what agreement has been reached between the Ministry of Defence and the Overseas Development Administration on the sharing of costs for roads or other infrastructure projects on the Falklands.

The estimated cost of repairs and rehabilitation of roads in Stanley and the airport road is £6·8 million. The Ministry of Defence has agreed to meet up to £4·3 million, with the Overseas Development Administration providing £2·5 million.MOD and ODA have agreed to share equally the estimated cost of £200,000 for interim improvements to Stanley water supply.

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will give the figures for British direct and indirect investment in South Africa for the most recent year available.

For flows of outward direct investment, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him in the Official Report for 23 January 1984, at column 385. Estimates of the book values of net direct investment assets were published in British Business on 2 March 1984. Figures for indirect investment in South Africa are not available.

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will compare the number of company liquidations dealt with by the Official Receiver's Office for the (a) Leeds, (b) Bradford, (c) Wakefield, (d) Harrogate, (e) Dewsbury and (f) Huddersfield areas for 1982 and 1983.

The official receivers deal only with compulsory company liquidations. The receivers in the Leeds and Bradford offices are attached to the county courts in the areas in the question plus Halifax and the Official Receiver at Leeds is also attached to the Leeds district' registry of the High Court of Justice. The number of cases dealt with following winding-up orders in the various courts was as follows:

	1982	1983
(a) Leeds including district registry	40	66
(b) Bradford	11	10
(c) Wakefield	6	3
(d) Harrogate	1	2
(e) Dewsbury	4	4
(f) Huddersfield	2	1
(g) Halifax	0	2
TOTAL	64	88

In addition, the official receivers at Leeds and Bradford dealt with 43 liquidations coming from other courts in 1982 and 62 in 1983, acting as deputies to the official receivers attached to those courts.

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Council of Ministers' meeting on the internal market held in Brussels on 8 March.

The meeting of the Council on 8 March which I attended had a useful exchange of views on liberalisation of freight haulage and reduction in frontier formalities, preparatory to further discussions in the Transport Council on 22 March. France confirmed its intention to bring forward the date of implementation of the frontier facilitation directive to 1 January 1985. This directive contains several practical proposals for reducing waiting times at intra-Community frontiers.The Council agreed that the temporary use regulation should be extended to commercial samples. This will permit samples to be imported temporarily without payment of taxes and without requiring any form of financial guarantee. The list of samples to benefit from this simplified procedure will be approved at a further Council.The Council set a target date of June 1984 to prepare and agree final proposals for the single administrative document, which will replace the multiplicity of different national forms used for customs control in intra-Community trade. The Council also requested a report by April on the practical possibilities for increasing the limits of duty-paid travellers allowances.There was a further discussion of the proposed common commercial policy regulation. The European Commission signalled its intention shortly to produce new proposals to seek to bridge the remaining differences between the positions of member states.The presidency undertook to hold a further meeting of the Council devoted to liberalisation of trade in goods and services before the end of June.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the clear-up rate for housebreaking offences in Scotland in 1963, 1973 and for the last year for which figures are available.

The requested rates for 1973 and 1983 are given in the following table. Because a comparable figure for 1963 is not available, clear-up rates for housebreaking and theft by opening lockfast places for 1963, 1973 and 1983 are also given.

Crimes cleared up by the police as a percentage of those recorded, Scotland
	1963	1973	1983*
Housebreaking	†	27	18
Housebreaking and theft by opening lockfast places	27	27	17
* Provisional.
† Not available.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) under what circumstances prisoners in Scotland are denied the opportunity to practise their religion, including attending services; and if he will make a statement.(2) how many prisoners in Scottish prisons are not allowed to practise their religion, including attending services; and if he will make a statement.

There are no circumstances in which a prisoner in Scotland is denied the opportunity to practise his religion or to see a chaplain or, as far as practicable, a minister of his own denomination. A prisoner may be debarred from attending a religious service only if the governor considers that he would be likely to create a disturbance.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the amount and isotopic composition of all the plutonium produced by the South of Scotland electricity board's nuclear stations each year from 1971–72.

My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Energy, in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Mr. Rost) on 27 July 1983, at column 439 gave the rates of plutonium production and ranges of isotopic composition of plutonium produced in the fuel of the electricity generating boards' reactors when operating under typical current or design conditions. I understand that extensive detailed calculations would be required to produce the further information in the form requested.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will raise expenditure on support for the Gaelic language in Scotland in 1984–85 to a level of £5 per head for the Gaelic-speaking population.

I expect to increase direct Government grant to organisations which are working to maintain and improve the standing of Gaelic language and culture by about 5 per cent. in 1984–85. It will continue to be for the local authorities concerned to decide what priority they give to supporting Gaelic.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will introduce legislation to prevent regional councils in Scotland from using their educational, social work and other funds to sustain industrial action taken by trades unions; and if he will make a statement.

It is for each local authority to satisfy itself that any expenditure it incurs is within its powers. Arrangements already exist, through the audit provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, for dealing with any expenditure of a local authority which is contrary to law.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will order an extraordinary audit of Fife regional council in respect of (a) expenditure on free school meals for striking miners' children and (b) interest-free loans given to the National Union of Mineworkers under section 12 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 968; and if he will make a statement.

There is no statutory provision for my right hon. Friend to order an extraordinary audit but the auditor is already aware of the reported expenditure.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what proposals have been submitted for support under the extension of the technical and vocational education initiative to Scotland; and what decisions have been reached upon them.

The technical and vocational initiative is designed to stimulate the further development of technical and vocational education for 14 to 18-year-olds by providing resources for education authorities to run pilot schemes.Proposals were submitted by all but two regional councils and by one islands council following the extension of the scheme to Scotland which was announced on 27 January. The Manpower Services Commission has recommended that it should enter into detailed negotiations on six proposals and I have agreed that it should do so.The six schemes concerned are those submitted by:

Borders
Central
Dumfries and Galloway
Fife
Glasgow Division	Strathclyde
Renfrew Division

Final acceptance of these proposals for support under the initiative is subject to the outcome of the discussions in each case. It is intended that the schemes should be in operation from the beginning of the 1984–85 school year.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what are his policies on the provision of treatment and assistance to families with hyperactive children; and whether his Department monitors the extent to which this brings relief to families directly affected;(2) how much money was spent by the National Health Service in 1983 for the treatment of hyperactivity in children;(3) how many children were treated by the National Health Service in 1983 for hyperactivity.

Hyperactivity is a symptom which occurs in many conditions, and the diagnosis of "hyperkinetic (hyperactive) syndrome" on its own is comparatively rare in the United Kingdom. Many of the children described in lay terms as "hyperactive" would be regarded as having a conduct disorder.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many psychiatric beds are planned for Haringey, Islington and Camden health authorities to provide for the closure of Friern Barnet hospital;(2) how much money will be provided to each district health authority to provide services to compensate for the closure of Friern Barnet hospital.

The North-East Thames regional health authority and the district health authorities concerned are still considering plans for the proposed local reprovision of services currently provided at Friern and Claybury hospitals and decisions on bed numbers and revenue transfers have not yet been taken.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the present cost of administering Friern Barnet and Shenley hospitals.

The total revenue expenditure for Friern and Shenley hospitals in 1982–83, the latest date for which figures are centrally available, was £11,906,074 and £11,395,799, respectively. If the hon. Member is seeking specific information on administrative costs within that total, he might like to approach the Hampstead and Brent health authorities direct.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make financial assistance available to the Institute of Agricultural Medicine and Rehabilitation.

The Department does not appear to have received an application from the institute. Without further details it is not possible to say whether we could give financial assistance.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what percentage of ambulance authorities is now operating or planning a specialisation of services, known as tiering; and if he will make a statement.

This information is not held centrally, but we are aware that a number of authorities have separated the organisation of their emergency and non-emergency ambulance services. It is for them to decide whether such an arrangement best meets their own local needs. Following the report of a recent National Health Service scrutiny of the ambulance service, my right hon. Friend has written to the chairmen of all health authorities about the improvements we wish them to seek in the operation of their services. I am sending my hon. Friend a copy of the report and my right hon. Friend's covering letter.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest position on National Health Service pay negotiations in all sectors for 1983–84.

Pay negotiations for NHS staff groups not covered by the pay review bodies are conducted in the various Whitley councils. I understand that claims have been submitted in respect of some but not yet all such staff groups. I also understand that at a meeting on 14 March the staff side of the Administrative and Clerical Staffs Council rejected an offer worth 3 per cent. overall.Review bodies are considering the pay of doctors and dentists, nurses and midwives and the professions allied to medicine.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services which countries of the European Community used to fluoridate their water supplies but now no longer do so; and what were their reasons for desisting.

As far as we are aware, the only EC country to have ceased fluoridating its water supplies is the Netherlands. This followed a ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court on 22 June 1973 that there was no legislative basis for fluoridation in Holland.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give, for each year since 1970 and for each regional and district health authority, the total number of staffed beds in National Health Service hospitals.

I shall let the hon. Member have such information as can be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the waiting list at each drug addiction unit; and what is the waiting time before new referrals from general practitioners can be seen.

This information is not collected centrally.

asked the Secretary of State for Energy whether there is any commitment by the Central Electricity Generating Board not to reprocess spent fuel from pressurised water reactors.

As explained in its proof of evidence—CEGB P6 — to the Sizewell inquiry, the board is assuming that irradiated PWR fuel would at some stage require reprocessing. The design of PWR proposed for Sizewell B has a cooling pond capable of storing at least 18 years of irradiated fuel. This arrangement provides flexibility in the timing of reprocessing, and permits various options and time scales to be considered. No decision has to be taken at present by the board.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will pay an official visit to the two new training courses on new technology access at Letchworth and Deptford.

I shall be visiting the Deptford skillcentre on 17 May to inaugurate the Skillcentre Services Agency's network of new technology access centres.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report the text of the card used in his Department's recent pilot ethnic monitoring scheme.

I am sending the right hon. Member a copy of the card and will place further copies in the Library.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons who left school at the end of each of the summer terms in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983, in England, are now (a) in full-time permanent employment, (b) in full-time education, (c) on various youth training or temporary employment schemes and (d) unemployed.

Redundancies confirmed as due to occur for 1979 to 1983
	Merseyside Special Development Area*		Knowsley Local Authority Area†		Kirkby Jobcentre Area		Prescot Jobcentre Area
	Number of firms	Redundancies involved	Number of firms	Redundancies involved	Number of firms	Redundancies involved	Number of firms	Redundancies involved
1979	184	15,225	29	2,355	16	1,792	13	563
1980	375	19,355	45	2,829	28	2,117	17	712
1981	370	24,635	48	3,079	35	2,232	13	847
1982	227	15,898	25	1,994	16	1,302	1	233
1983‡	179	13,234	20	2,019	14	1,350	Nil	Nil
* Includes St. Helens jobcentre area to 31 July 1980.
† Includes Kirkby, Prescot and, from February 1982, Huyton jobcentre areas.
‡ Provisional.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms in the Tottenham area have laid off employees during each of the last four years; how many workers were involved; and what percentage the figures represent of the estimated total employed in the area.

Information in the form requested is not available. The available estimates, produced by the Department of Education and Science, relate to the educational and economic activities of 16 and 17-year olds at January each year. Estimates for England and Wales for years up to January 1983 are published in the Department of Education and Science "Digest of Statistics, England 1983 (Tables 13 and 14)" and in an earlier statistical bulletin 2/83 "Education and Economic Activity of Young People aged 16–19 years in England and Wales from 1973–74 to 1981–82". Copies of these publications are available in the Library.Provisional estimates for Great Britain in January 1984, with equivalent data for 1983, were given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science in his reply to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Forman) on 7 March 1984, at column 597.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current trend in vacancies and its implications for future employment patterns in England.

The seasonally adjusted stock of unfilled vacancies notified to jobcentres in England rise throughout most of 1983. However, in recent months the level has fallen back slightly, but the stock in February 1984 was 25 per cent. higher than a year ago. The implications of this trend are encouraging.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms have announced redundancies in each year since 1979 (a) on Merseyside, (b) in Knowsley, (c) in Kirkby and (d) in Prescot; and how many were made redundant on each occasion.

The information requested is given in the following table.

The information requested is given in the following table.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people aged 20 years or younger are currently unemployed in the Tottenham area; how many young people in the same area are on temporary employment and training schemes; and what percentages these figures represent.

The available information is as follows. On 12 January, the latest date for which an analysis by age is available, the number of unemployed claimants aged under 20 years in the Tottenham jobcentre area was 1,853. Figures for those aged 20 years are not separately analysed.Statistics relating to temporary employment and training schemes are not separately available for Tottenham. The number of young people on the youth training scheme in the London borough of Haringey at the end of February was 532. In addition, 10 young people were in training under the youth opportunities programme.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of women in (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment in the Leeds travel-to-work area at May 1979 and on the latest available figures.

The following is the available information for the Leeds travel-to-work area from June 1978 and the most recent September 1981 census of employment. Figures for May 1979 are not available.

Female employees in employment in the Leeds travel-to-work area
	June 1978	September 1981
	thousands	thousands
Full-time	76·4	68·9
Part-time	56·5	50·5

asked the Secretary of State for Employment, at the last available date, how many young people in the Leeds travel-to-work area (a) under the age of 18 years and (b) under the age of 21 years have never been in employment.

The following is the available information for unemployed claimants in the Leeds travel-to-work area on 9 February. The figures relate to unemployed school leavers—young people who had not entered employment since terminating full-time education.

Age	Number
Under 18	1,193
18	933
19 and over	1,898

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what evaluation he has requested, received, or made concerning the respective merits of modes A and B of the youth training scheme; where any such evaluation is published; and what subsequent actions he has taken.

I shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list, from information which is available to him, European Economic Community and Commonwealth countries which have adopted International Labour Organisation conventions Nos. 26 and 99.

[pursuant to his reply, 22 March 1984, c. 558]: As at 31 December 1982 the following European Economic Community and Commonwealth countries had ratified International Labour Organisation conventions Nos. 26 and 99.CONVENTION No. 26

asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will explain the increases in local authority road construction expenditure for the years 1981–82 and 1982–83 shown in Cmnd. 9143 compared to Cmnd. 8789.

The figures for road construction in 1981–82 shown in Cmnd. 8789 contained an element of estimation because outturn information was not available for all local authorities. The figures in Cmnd. 9143 are based on complete date.The figures for 1982–83 shown in Cmnd. 8789 were based on a projection from reported levels of spending in the first half of the year. They therefore made no allowance for the effect of the measures subsequently taken to reduce the prospective local authority capital underspend. The figures in Cmnd. 9143 were based on the outturn information available at the time.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport whether, in view of the underspend of the local authority road construction budget expected in 1983–84, he is prepared to consider the introduction of a capital grant to assist local road construction in place of the present transport supplementary grant system.

We are reviewing the transport supplementary grant system to see if more can be done to encourage worthwhile capital investment by local authorities.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he has now sanctioned the guidelines for the feasibility study of the second Severn crossing: when the feasibility study will begin its work; and if he will list those who will work on the feasibility study.

An announcement will be made soon. A decision about which firm or firms should be appointed will be made only after a suitable selection procedure.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he proposes to initiate a traffic control scheme at the Severn bridge whereby traffic signals automatically activated by the heaviest lorries control traffic flows;(2) if he had initiated studies and feasibility schemes concerning lorry signal schemes prior to the announcement of the Severn bridge strengthening programme and the second Severn crossing feasibility study.

Very careful consideration was given to the possibility of employing automatic traffic control systems in order to reduce the need for strengthening, but it was concluded that the savings that could be achieved would be exceeded by the cost of developing and installing a reliable system.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will elaborate on the reference to prior year adjustments in paragraph 5 of the foreword to the Severn bridge tolls account for 1982–83, which was published on 22 March.

Following a change made in 1976–77 in the accounting procedure used in compiling the Severn bridge tolls account, an item of notional interest which should have been debited each year has been systematically omitted. Although actual expenditure on the bridge is funded from the Roads Vote as it arises, the statutory account, which provides the framework of income and expenditure for setting tolls, is based on funding by notional borrowing from the Consolidated Fund. A working capital account is drawn up which includes both actual and notional cash flows; and it is the interest on notional borrowing from the Consolidated-Fund which should have been debited to this account which has been omitted. The annual deficiencies on the operating accounts for the years 1977–78 to 1981–82 were therefore understated by a total of £1,984,690. As soon as my Department discovered this, we brought the additional deficiencies into the 1982–83 account. They are listed year by year in note 7 to the account. I regret the necessity for these adjustments.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what regulations and conditions of service cover service men in the armed services during peace time.

The regulations which apply to members of the armed forces include the Terms of Service Regulations, Queen's Regulations and the Service Discipline Act appropriate to each service, Orders in Council, Royal Warrants and Orders concerning eligibility for pay and allowances, and books of regulations dealing with particular subjects. In addition, standing orders and instructions are issued by various authorities.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether all service men serving with the RHA Chestnut troop in Hohne, West Germany, have been able to take their full leave entitlement to date.

In the leave year ending 31 March 1984 two thirds of the personnel of RHA Chestnut troop have been able to take the full entitlement of six weeks' leave. All the remainder have taken at least three weeks' leave and the majority have taken at least four weeks. More leave will be taken when the unit returns from exercises on 23 March. Those personnel who have been unable to take their full entitlement may apply to carry forward up to two weeks' leave into the next leave year.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the number of animals that have died as a result of experiments on them in each of the last five years at Porton Down; and what has been the number that have had to be killed as a result of the effects of experiments on them.

Information in the form requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, information is available on the total number of animal experiments reported by the Chemical Defence Establishment, Porton Down, for each of the last four years and is as follows:

1980	1981	1982	1983
17,800	17,200	13,400	9,500

It is normal practice to kill an animal painlessly at the end of an experiment.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what instructions are issued to part-time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment about the applicability of military law at all times, including when they are off duty.

All Ulster Defence Regiment personnel are subject to military law at all times, and are regularly reminded of this in regimental routine orders.