asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish in the Official Report his Department's grant to Heart Beat Wales for the next five years.

In 1984–85 the Welsh Office has made £20,000 available for Heart Beat Wales. I am announcing today that, subject to parliamentary approval, £100,000 will be made available to the programme in 1985–86. Our Department's support in future years will be considered annually in the light of the availability of resources and the programme's development.

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many of the seven experts who form the panel on whom he is dependent for advice in relation to the limitation of the range of drugs available on the National Health Service in Wales either live or work in Wales.

None, but the Welsh Office chief medical officer was actively engaged in the deliberations of this expert group, which was made aware of the representations received by the Welsh Office.

asked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the anticipated annual savings which he expects will arise in Wales from the intention to introduce a limited list of available drugs on the National Health Service.

In the tight of the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services yesterday at columns 1223–24, it is now estimated that savings arising in Wales will be of the order of £4 million per annum rising over the next two or three years to about £5 million per annum.

asked the Lord Privy Seal if he will ask the Procedure Committee to consider the implications of the information made available by the Government relating to the sinking of the General Belgrano for the rules relating to parliamentary questions about advice given by officials to Ministers.

Any matter relating to the rules for parliamentary questions is already within the terms of reference of the Procedure Committee.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what changes he proposes to make relating to the hospital eye service when changes to general ophthalmic services take effect on 1 April.

The present arrangements for refraction and dispensing for hospital eye service patients will continue although they will be able to choose whether to have their prescriptions dispensed outside the National Health Service.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to introduce current cost accounting in the Health Service.

We have no plans to do so at present. The standard accounting practices now followed in the National Health Service were drawn up in 1982 by a working group of the Association of Health Service Treasurers. The standards proposed by the working group were based on the statement of standard accounting practice issued by the professional accountancy bodies, so far as they were judged to be relevant and practicable. In commenting on SSAP 16, which is the standard for current cost accounting, the working group stated in its report that

"The NHS records capital expenditure separately, but does not record depreciation in revenue accounts. Accordingly this standard has no application to the accounts of the NHS."

Before the case for current cost accounting can be considered again it will be necessary to have established a method of accounting for the use of capital in the NHS. The case for this is now being considered by a working part of the AHST on which our Department and the Treasury are also represented. I understand that the Association expects to send the working party's report fairly soon to my right hon. Friend, and we shall then be considering its proposals.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many members of the North-East Thames regional health authority (a) currently live in Waltham Forest and (b) have lived in Waltham Forest since the inception of the authority; and if he will make a statement.

We do not hold home as opposed to work addresses for every member of North-East Thames regional health authority. Of those for whom we do hold home addresses none lives in Waltham Forest.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many nurse practitioners are currently operating in Britain; under whose authority and on what conditions they operate; which of these nurse practitioners are allowed to dispense drugs under the general supervision of a general practitioner; and what information he has as to the nature and effectiveness of the service they provide.

Nurse practitioner is not recognised as a definition of a professional group in the National Health Service. As a matter of law, "prescription-only" medicine must be supplied in accordance with the prescription of a doctor. A nurse may not, therefore, dispense such drugs on her own initiative even under the general supervision of a general medical practitioner. This legislation has been enacted by Parliament as a protection for the consumers of medicines and drugs.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the number of unsettled homeless people who are not registered with general practitioners and the cities in which they are concentrated; what information he has of any difficulties they face in getting health treatment and the nature of these difficulties; and if he has any proposals, including greater use of nurse practitioners, to improve their access to National Health Service provision.

Information about the numbers of unsettled homeless people who are not registered with general practitioners is not available.The Government sponsored report "Single and Homeless" (HMSO 1981) provides an indication of the nature of problems encountered by homeless people in gaining access to primary health care. I announced in June 1984 that the Government were allocating a further £2 million over the next two years to help primary health care in the inner cities, £1·2 million in 1984 and £0·9 million this year. This is part of the £9 million announced in 1983 following the publication of the Acheson report to improve inner cities health services.As I explained in my other reply to the right hon. Member today, nurse practitioner is not recognised as a definition of a professional group in the National Health Service. The care of such patients is for general medical practitioners as part of their services to the wider public.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects to receive advice from the medical working group on drug dependence on the extension of licensing restrictions to all opioids.

Disallowances	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983
Great Britain
Total	902,100	930,300	1,241,700	1,156,000	1,174,300	*1,180,300
Seasonal workers	2,700	2,900	3,400	3,300	4,000	5,100
South East
Total	217,600	222,700	289,000	291,000	305,000	303,000
Seasonal workers	200	300	400	300	400	500
East Anglia
Total	31,200	34,800	30,800	23,000	22,700	33,100
Seasonal workers	300	300	300	300	300	400
South West
Total	64,700	68,900	103,100	89,300	91,900	89,000
Seasonal workers	600	700	1,000	800	1,100	1,300
West Midlands
Total	84,800	90,200	142,300	145,600	125,500	108,400
Seasonal workers	—	—	—	100	100	100
East Midlands
Total	66,400	67,900	108,900	102,000	94,100	87,600
Seasonal workers	200	300	300	300	300	500

I understand that the Medical Working Group intends to submit its advice on licensing shortly.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what facilities exist in Coventry, the west midlands and nationally for the screening of acquired immune deficiency syndrome; and what steps Her Majesty's Government have taken to increase the availability of screening facilities.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will now make it compulsory for blood donors to be tested for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Tests to detect the presence in blood of antibodies to the HTLV III virus have been developed both here and abroad. At present they are available only for research purposes. We hope that tests will be released for general use later this year. We shall thoroughly evaluate the tests on offer to see which is most suitable for use in the National Health Service. In anticipation of these developments we have advised regional health authorities to set aside funds in 1985–86 to enable blood transfusion centres to test all blood donations as soon as this is possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to the reply of 1 February, Official Report, column 387, concerning the number of seasonal workers disallowed unemployment benefit between 1978 and 1983, if he will now provide an analysis of (a) the total disallowances and (b) the seasonal workers disallowances, broken down by standard regions.

The information requested is given in the table. The regions are administrative regions of Department of Employment, who operate the unemployment benefit system as agents for this Department.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when the recommendations of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council on the prescription of vibration white finger, bi-lateral diffuse pleural thickening and lung cancer will be implemented.

I am pleased to announce that regulations were laid today which will add these diseases to the schedule of prescribed industrial diseases from 1 April 1985. Benefit will be payable to those in certain specified occupations who suffer from the more severe forms of vibration white finger and to asbestos workers suffering from bilateral diffuse pleural thickening or from lung cancer accompanied by asbestosis or bilateral diffuse pleural thickening.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give details of the projects covered by the expanded research effort in Antarctica undertaken by the Natural Environment Research Council.

The expanded research effort by the British Antacrtic Survey, an institute of the Natural Environment Research Council, covers work mainly in two areas: the geological and marine life sciences. In the former, the additional work includes fundamental research into geological processes and geological and geophysical surveys. In the latter there will be increased effort on studies of the marine ecosystem, including research into birds, seals, krill and fish.Investigations by the BAS of the Antarctic ice environment as a measure of changes in climate, atmospheric pollution and sea level are also being enhanced.Increased support by the NERC for university-based Antarctic research includes a three-year programme of research grants and studentships in the geological, life and atmospheric sciences and a five-year research contract with the University of Birmingham supporting marine geophysics.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what steps he intends to take to assess academic progress and attainments in secondary schools in respect of pupils from Asian communities in comparison to those from West Indian communities;(2) what resources he intends to make available for the purpose of promoting teacher exchanges between all-white and multiracial schools;(3) what resources he intends to offer to ethnic minority community schools to assist them to raise their standards of education in conjunction with requirements set down in General Certificate of Education ordinary and advanced level syllabuses.

These subjects are among those which have been reviewed by the committee of inquiry into the education of children from ethnic minority groups, now chaired by Lord Swann. The Government will consider future action in the light of its findings.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what action he has taken resulting from the findings of the 1981 report on West Indian education chaired by Mr. Anthony Rampton.

The interim findings of the committee of the inquiry into the education of children from ethnic minority groups on children of West Indian origin were widely disseminated through a public consultation process initiated by the Government. Many LEAs and schools have taken action in response. For their part, the Government's policies on education have taken account of the needs brought about by ethnic diversity. The Government have undertaken a review of section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966, which resulted in 1982 in the promulgation of new criteria for the funding of posts. They have also set up a working group to look at the mechanics and acceptability of collecting ethnically based statistics on school pupils. The Government will consider further action in the light of the committee's final report

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of secondary school teachers have gained promotion to higher pay grades during the last five annual school years.

Information is readily available only for the years ending in March 1980 to 1983 and is given below.

Percentage of teachers in service*on 31 March who had been promoted since 31 March of previous year
Year	Percentage
1980	10·0
1981	8·2
1982	7·4
1983	7·5
* In full-time service in maintained secondary schools in England and Wales.

asked the Attorney-General, on what basis he decides who to consult before initiating prosecutions under the Official Secrets Act.

As in the case of a prosecution for any offence, before I authorise a prosecution under the Official Secrets Acts I consult any person who I consider is likely to be able to inform me of considerations which I might wish to take into account in deciding whether a prosecution would be in the public interest. If I have no reason to think that there are any such considerations, I do not consult anybody except for my hon. Friend the Solicitor-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

asked the Attorney-General whether he was consulted by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the prosecution about the judge's indication on Wednesday 6 February that he intended to give an instruction to convict to the jury in the Ponting case.

No.

asked the Attorney-General how many cases of legal proceedings have been instituted resulting from assaults on striking miners since the commencement of the coal strike.

This information is not centrally recorded and could be obtained only at disproportionate expense.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proportion of Her Majesty's Government's aid to Ethiopia in the last 12 months was redirected from other programmes.

None. Our aid to Ethiopia of around £29 million during the last 12 months has come from allocations already agreed for food aid, disaster relief of other specific purposes, from a reserve set aside for contingencies and from unavoidable slippage elsewhere in the aid programme. The Ministry of Defence has provided a substantial contribution by sending a Hercules detachment to assist in the distribution of relief supplies and this has naturally had some effect on its other flying activities.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how long is the waiting time for first interview in (a) the main queue and (b) the priority queue in Dhaka, Bombay, New Dehli and Islamabad.

The information requested is published quarterly in the Home Office bulletin "Control of Immigration: Statistics". As shown in this bulletin, at the end of third quarter of last year, waiting time to first interview for applicants in the non-priority queue in Dhaka was 22 months; in Bombay, 6 months; in New Dehli, 10½ months; and in Islamabad, 10½ months. Applicants placed in priority queues were interviewed in six months or less in Bangladesh and in two months in India and Pakistan.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what funds his Department has given to the world disarmament campaign; and if he will make a statement.

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, East (Mr. Strong) on 28 November 1984 at column 68.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which countries, not being signatories of the non-proliferation treaty, have received nuclear technology from the United Kingdom since 1980.

I assume that the hon. Member is referring to the transfer of nuclear equipment of facilities. If that is the case, no NPT non-party has received such technology from the United Kingdom since 1980.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action he proposes to take to seek to ensure that the 1980 breakdown on the nonproliferation treaty review conference does not recur at the 1985 review conference; and if he will make a statement.

Although the 1980 review conference did not agree a substantive final document endorsing the treaty, there was broad agreement between the parties on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and no delegation contested the indispensable role played by the nonproliferation treaty in maintaining global security. Since 1980, the treaty has remained intact. No state party has withdrawn, and there have been eight new parties. Our policy towards the 1985 NPT review conference will reflect our very firm commitment to the treaty. We shall be working with other supporters of the NPT to achieve a satisfactory outcome which strengthens the Treaty in the long term.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many of the 83 staff in scientific and technical grades who resigned in 1984 from the Government communications headquarters for reasons other than retirement, transfer to another department, maternity or marriage, had already taken the £1,000 offered by the Government on relinquishing the right to join a trades union.

Of the 83 staff in the scientific and technical grades who resigned in 1984, 72 received the £1,000 in recognition of the loss of their statutory rights under the Employment Protection Acts of 1975.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures will be taken by his Department following the conclusions of the report, "Government Spending."

The FCO is currently considering what action it will take to implement the recommendations of the report on Government purchasing as Departments have been asked to prepare action documents by 1 April. We have, however, already identified some areas where we can achieve greater value for money. These include improved arrangements for travel, freighting of officers' personal effects and obtaining supplies through central agencies.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what are the consequences for the United Kingdom of the failure of the European Assembly to approve a budget for the Community for 1985; and if he will make a statement.

In the absence of an approved Community budget for 1985, Community spending, including spending in the United Kingdom is governed by the provisional twelfths regime. This limits payments to the level provided for in the relevant chapter of the 1984 budget, released on a month-by-month basis.

asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State answering in respect of the Arts when the Arts Council expects to consider the request it has received for financial support for the proposed Manchester opera festival in 1986.

The Arts Council is considering what it can do to support the festival, but can make no formal allocation of funds until its own grant has been voted to them by Parliament.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out in tabular form his estimate of the average monthly cost to the Exchequer when an adult male worker on average weekly earnings, (on the basis of all industry and services covered by the "New Earnings Survey", updated if appropriate by the average earnings index, and assuming pay was not affected by absence) becomes unemployed, showing separately (a) for single men and (b) for a married man with two children, one aged under five years and the other between five and 10 years, the following disbursements: (i) unemployment benefit, (ii) supplementary benefit, (iii) income tax rebate, (iv) rent and rate rebate, and the following losses of revenue: (v) from income tax, (vi) from taxes on consumption of goods and services, (vii) from employers' national insurance contributions and (viii) from employees' national insurance contribution.

I shall let the right hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to reduce the level of Inland Revenue staff during the next three financial years.

The Government's plans for Civil Service manpower for the period to 1988 were published on 22 January 1985 in the Public Expenditure White Paper—Cmnd. 9428 — "The Government's Expenditure plans 1985–86 to 1987–88." The figures for the Inland Revenue were as follows:

1 April	Number
1985	69,724
1986	69,274
1987	66,274
1988	62,874

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing, for the latest years now available, identifiable public expenditure by programme in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom expressed (a) in cash terms, (b) as a percentage of United Kingdom total identifiable public expenditure, (c) as an amount per capita and (d) as an amount per capita expressed as a percentage of the United Kingdom amount per capita.

Tables 1 to 5 show figures of identifiable public expenditure according to main function in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are the only available figures comparing public expenditure on programmes in the four countries of the United Kingdom. The analysis is presented for the past five years, the only period for which data are available on a consistent basis. The term "identifiable expenditure" refers to expenditure that can be identified from official records as having been incurred in a particular country. Table 6 compares, for the latest year, 1983–84, expenditure in Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland programmes with total identifiable expenditure in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively. It shows that identifiable expenditure has a wider coverage than expenditure within the responsibility of the Secretaries of State in the case of Scotland or Wales, and in the case of Northern Ireland, it has a slightly wider coverage than the Northern Ireland programme in the public expenditure survey. This table also shows all unidentifiable expenditure by programme.Unidentifiable expenditure includes expenditure on defence, overseas aid and other overseas services which are deemed to have been incurred on behalf of the United Kingdom as a whole. It also includes Government net lending to, and the market and overseas borrowing of, the public corporations, because of the difficulties of allocating the finance to expenditure in particular countries. Total identifiable public expenditure represents about 80 per cent. of total public expenditure on programmes.

1984 Territorial analysis: Summary tables
Table S1: Identifiable public expenditure 1979–80 to 1983–84
	£ million					As a percentage of United Kingdom identifiable expenditure
	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland	United Kingdom	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland
1979–80	48,451·0	6,869·8	3,186·2	2,473·5	60,980·5	79·5	11·3	5·2	4·1
1980–81	58,567·1	8,260·7	3,904·8	2,983·1	73,715·7	79·4	11·2	5·3	4·0
1981–82	65,342·8	9,301·3	4,377·5	3,310·1	82,331·7	79·4	11·3	5·3	4·0
1982–83	71,712·8	10,148·9	4,797·3	3,614·3	90,273·3	79·4	11·2	5·3	4·0
1983–84	76,363·2	10,702·2	5,209·6	3,937·1	96,212·1	79·4	11·1	5·4	4·1

Table S2: Identifiable public expenditure 1979–80 to 1983–84
	£ per head					As a percentage of United Kingdom identifiable expenditure per head
	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland	United Kingdom	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland
1979–80	1,037·5	1,321·1	1,137·9	1,545·9	1,085·1	95·6	121·7	104·9	142·5
1980–81	1,251·4	1,588·6	1,394·6	1,864·4	1,309·3	95·6	121·3	106·5	142·4
1981–82	1,396·2	1,788·7	1,563·4	2,068·8	1,459·8	95·6	122·5	107·1	141·7
1982–83	1,532·3	1,951·7	1,713·3	2,258·9	1,603·4	95·6	121·7	106·9	140·9
1983–84	1,631·7	2,058·1	1,860·6	2,460·7	1,705·9	95·7	120·6	109·1	144·2

Table 1a. Identifiable Public Expenditure 1979–80
	£ million					As a percentage of United Kingdom identifiable expenditure
	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland	United Kingdom	England	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland
Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Forestry	540·1	160·4	65·8	123·0	889·3	60·7	18·0	7·4	13·8
Industry, Energy, Trade and Employment	1,464·6	359·0	193·0	246·8	2,263·4	64·7	15·9	8·5	10·9
Arts and Libraries	376·0	45·1	23·4	—	444·5	84·6	10·1	5·3	—
Roads and Transport	2,283·4	402·8	222·6	113·2	3,022·0	75·6	13·3	7·4	3·7
Housing	4,520·5	733·9	207·1	211·9	5,673·4	79·7	12·9	3·7	3·7
Other Environmental Services	2,330·0	396·2	206·2	104·2	3,036·6	76·7	13·0	6·8	3·4
Law, Order and Protective Services	2,058·7	251·2	111·5	258·3	2,679·7	76·8	9·4	4·2	9·6
Education and Science	8,645·5	1,291·1	537·1	389·9	10,863·6	79·6	11·9	4·9	3·6
Health and Personal Social Services	8,898·7	1,232·9	543·3	382·1	11,057·0	80·5	11·2	4·9	3·5
Social Security	16,294·1	1,806·7	992·9	597·6	19,691·3	82·7	9·2	5·0	3·0
Other Public Services	600·8	148·3	60·8	27·4	837·3	71·8	17·7	7·3	3·3
Common Services	438·6	42·2	22·5	19·1	522·4	84·0	8·1	4·3	3·7
Planning total	48,451·0	6,869·8	3,186·2	2,473·5	60,980·5	79·5	11·3	5·2	4·1