asked Her Majesty's Government:What Advisory Committees exist and are currently advising Departments on matters relating to conditions of keeping animals, or their use, health, breeding, welfare and slaughter.

:The following bodies advise Departments on a wide variety of matters affecting animals and wildlife. If my noble friend would let me have details of any particular area of concern to him I will arrange for this to be looked at.Advisory Committee on the Administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876,Advisory Committee on the Protection of Birds for England and Wales,Advisory Committee on the Protection of Birds for Scotland,Consultative Panel on Badgers and Tuberculosis,Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee,Hill Farming Advisory Committee for England, Wales and Northern Ireland,Hill Farming Advisory Committee for Scotland,Natural Environment Research Council,Nature Conservancy Council,Red Deer Commission,Scientific Authority for Animals (Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act 1976).The following bodies advise the relevant Northern Ireland Departments:Cattle Improvement Committee,

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether there is any Government Department engaged in a study of the advance of technology in industry and the effect on employment, and whether the knowledge gained will affect future forecasts of unemployment.

:The Department of Industry is continuously looking at technological change and a range of implications for industry including productivity, competitiveness, employment, etc. A working party of the Advisory Council for Applied Research and Development (ACARD) is beginning an investigation of technological change and employment and DOI will be contributing to that study. The Department's concern with manpower requirements and employment levels is primarily for those sectors of industry for which the Department has a sponsorship responsibility. Furthermore, technological change is only one of many factors affecting unemployment levels and it is not expected that the Department's studies will have more than marginal impact on forecasts of unemployment levels which are the responsibility of Her Majesty's Treasury.

:The quantities of Cheddar cheese produced in the United Kingdom and imported in each of the last five years were:

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much Cheddar cheese has been imported (

:The quantities of Cheddar cheese imported from EEC and other sources in the last five years were:

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many people are employed in farmhouse Cheddar cheese production.

I regret that this information is not available. However, 262 milk producers were registered with the Milk Marketing Boards in 1977 for the purpose of farmhouse cheese production.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much cheese has been imported from the Republic of Ireland in each of the last 12 months.

:Imports of cheese from the Republic of Ireland in the 12 months to February 1978, the latest months for which information is available were:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether statistics are available of the numbers of sheep and other farm animals lost as a result of the recent wintry conditions, especially in the North-East of England and in Scotland; and whether these statistics will influence the export of cattle to the Continent as referred to by Lord Houghton of Sowerby in the last debate before the Easter Recess.

It is still too early to assess fully the effects of the recent severe weather, but abnormal losses of cattle are very small and none have been reported in North-East England or Scotland. There is therefore no reason to believe they will influence the export of cattle to the Continent, which was the subject of a recent report by the Agricultural Departments of the United Kingdom.House adjourned at two minutes before eleven o'clock.