asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the Christmas bonus paid at Christmas to recipients of National Insurance benefits was also paid to beneficiaries of the Industrial Injuries Scheme not in receipt of other pensions or benefits.

The bonus was paid to the following beneficiaries under the Industrial Injuries scheme: widows and widowers receiving industrial death benefit; and industrial disablement pensioners receiving an unemployability supplement or allowance, or a constant attendance allowance. Many other industrial injury beneficiaries received the bonus because they were also entitled to one or more of the other qualifying benefits.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they can calculate the current annual loss to the yield of income tax resulting from the emigration of individuals in the last four years.

I regret that the information is not available.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they intend to lay the Statutory Instrument bringing into force Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the Criminal Law Act 1977.

Before the improvements made by these sections to the law on the service of process throughout the United Kingdom are brought into force (involving, as they do, the making of rules of court) it is desirable that the periods of imprisonment which may be imposed by courts in the three jurisdictions in default of payment of fines be brought into line; and urgent attention is being given to this.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will present net take-home pay as a percentage of national income for each year since 1945.

Following is the information. Estimates of national income are not available before 1948.Wages and salaries(

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much the pound has declined in value since 1st January 1973; and to what extent this decline is the result of membership of the EEC.

The pound depreciated against the dollar by 17·7 per cent. between the opening middle market rate on 1st January 1973 and the closing middle market rate on 20th January 1977, and sterling's trade weighted effective index declined by around 25 per cent. over the same period. However it is not possible to assess what, if any, effect membership of the EEC may have had on the value of sterling.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish a table showing the effect of five years' membership of the EEC on

No. As my noble friend Lord Oram explained to the noble Lord in a written reply on 17th January, it is not possible to separate the effects of five years' membership of the Community from the many other factors which combine to influence the items for which the noble Lord seeks information.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why Rules of Court are necessary before the Bail Act 1976 can be brought into force and why it took more than a year to prepare the draft rules.

The Bail Act makes extensive changes to the law and procedures relating to bail in criminal proceedings. Much of the detailed procedure is prescribed in rules of court, which have needed extensive amendment and revision to take account of the abolition of recognizances of defendants, the creation of the absconding offence and new provisions about the taking of sureties, recognizances and the giving of security for bail. In addition Section 5 of the Bail Act requires new procedures for forms to be prescribed for keeping records of bail decisions (including the courts' reasons for withholding bail or granting conditional bail) which have to be available to the defendant and may be required subsequently for evidential purposes in prosecutions for the absconding offence.The making of rules on these complex matters for the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Crown Court and magistrates' courts is a substantial operation and has been delayed by the need for wide consultations with interested bodies and because those engaged in their preparation were also involved in the passage of the Criminal Law Act last session.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list in the

It is not possible to give the total number of cases in which there was suspicion of fraud. Given below, therefore, are figures relating only to prosecutions and convictions.The figures are:

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many patients are at present being treated for fractured necks and backs due to motor cycle accidents in the spinal units in hospitals at Cardiff, Hexham, Oswestry, Sheffield, Southport, Stoke Mandeville and Wakefield.

The information requested is as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Subject to favourable weather conditions, it is hoped that work on repairing the Severn Bridge should reach the stage where traffic restrictions can be lifted by the end of February.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether a decision has been taken about the allocation of the Blenheim archives.

Yes. As announced in another place by my right honourable friend the Minister of State, Treasury, on 20th January 1977, a collection of papers known as "The Blenheim archives" has been accepted in lieu of estate duty and paid for from the National Land Fund. The papers are of major historical interest and a number of libraries have wished to acquire them. In accordance with current practice, I have sought the advice of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. The unanimous advice of the Commission is that the papers should be allocated to the British Library. After long and careful consideration I have decided to follow that advice.The Royal Commission and I have been very keenly aware of the strong wish of members of the Duke of Marlborough's family, and of a number of others, that the papers should be placed with other family collections in the keeping of Churchill College, Cambridge. In deciding that they should be assigned to the British Library, I have in particular been influenced by the Commission's advice that the cataloguing, arrangements and scholarly use of "The Blenheim archives" will require constant reference to and close comparison with other papers of the period already held by the British Library. I have also been impressed by the scale of the resources required for the proper cataloguing and conservation of the collection, which comprises about 30,000 documents.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the total overseas defence expenditure in each of the last 10 years paid out in foreign currency and by how much these figures have been swollen in each year by the depreciation of the pound.

Local defence expenditure overseas in the 10 years up to 1976–77 is shown in the left-hand column below. These figures reflect the prices prevailing at the times to which they relate. It is not practicable to assess the effect of the depreciation of the £ sterling, but the variations in the sterling-deutschemark exchange rate, shown in the right-hand column, may be helpful as the bulk of local defence expenditure overseas is now incurred in Germany:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the total defence cuts and projected cuts at 1977 Survey prices between the financial years 1975–76 and 1983–84 compared with the total of £8,402 million at 1976 prices given in the House of Commons

I would refer to the Answer given to the noble Lord, Lord Lyell, on 15th December 1977 (Vol. 387, cols. 2260–2262) which indicated total savings of £9,918 million over the years 1975–76 to 1983–84 between the defence budgets projected before the Government's Defence Review and those then envisaged or which had actually occurred. Since then the Government have announced in Cmnd. 7049 that the defence budget will be increased year-on-year by 3 per cent. in real terms in 1979–80, and again by 3 per cent. in real terms in 1980–81 subject to review in the light of our economic circumstances. This has the effect of reducing the cuts to 1980–81 by £70 million.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the number of public holidays (bank holidays) and the dates on which they fell during 1977 in each of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom and the other members of the EEC.

Following were the bank and other holidays observed in the United Kingdom in 1977:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, until such time as economic circumstances permit its designated development, some use cannot be found for the Board Sanctuary site, for instance in connection with tourism, which would be more appropriate to its important position and less unsightly than the existing private car park and public lavatory.

The Government are now considering proposals for the temporary use of the Broad Sanctuary site, including the provision of tourist facilities.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will show in tabular form how the official holidays taken over Christmas and the New Year in this country compare with the official holidays taken in the other Member States of the European Community.

The information is as follows: