asked Her Majesty's Government:Why kidney machine treatment in the Liverpool area has been made available only on a restricted basis calculated according to the age of the patient, and why such a decision amounting to a matter of life or death has not been disclosed; and further whether any steps can be taken in conjunction with the appropriate Health Authorities to deploy funds with such priority as to prevent fatalities from kidney malfunction which would not otherwise occur if the appropriate equipment were available.

Neither the Mersey Regional Health Authority nor the Liverpool Area Health Authority (Teaching) has defined any criteria for the acceptance of patients for the treatment of renal failure. This is judged on clinical criteria by the consultants concerned, and age is only one of a number of factors which would be taken into account.The Government attach high priority to the expansion of dialysis services. Of the England share of the £50 million increase for health services announced in the April Budget, some 8 per cent. has been allocated for this purpose. Of this, £90,000 capital and £125,000 recurrent expenditure have been allocated to Mersey Regional Health Authority to set up 2 minimal care units. These units, at Waterloo Hospital and Hoylake Cottage Hospital, are expected to come into use in the first half of next year. In addition, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Services has allocated £150,000 of special medical development funds for a further minimal care unit which opened last month at Mossley Hill Hospital. By freeing hospital places for training patients for home dialysis, these developments will enable the number of placements on home dialysis to be increased from the present level of 20–25 to 50–55 a year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many Hawk aircraft have been sold by British Aerospace to Indonesia.

It has been the policy of successive Governments not to reveal details of sales of defence equipment to individual countries.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What they estimate Zambia's losses to be for the years 1975–77 due to the refusal by Zambia to send her exports through South Africa and Rhodesia.

I regret that we cannot make a reliable estimate, because of the difficulty of quantifying the relevant factors, including the effects of the world recession and the cost of alternative routes for Zambian exports. But the cost to Zambia of enforcing UN sanctions has been substantial.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Monetary Compensatory Amounts do not apply to trade in animals classified as pure-bred breeding animals. So long as a common definition of such livestock is not in force for tariff purposes Member States are free to employ their own definitions.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will make a Statement about the progress of the Sheepmeat régime.

The technical study of the EEC Commission's proposals for a common organisation of the market in sheepmeat and of any viable alternatives, as requested by the Council of Agriculture Minister in June, is continuing. Her Majesty's Government consider that if a régime is necessary the Commission's proposals form a reasonable basis for discussion.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will explain the basis on which they have chosen the areas eligible for the EEC's Less Favoured Area Directives; and whether they propose to alter it.

In the negotiations for entry to the EEC, one of the United Kingdom's objectives was to ensure that the special assistance which was being given to our hill farmers would continue. The Declaration on Hill Fanning in the Treaty of Accession (Cmnd 4862–1) in 1972 gave recognition to this need and led to the adoption of the Less-Favoured Areas Directive 75/268/EEC in May 1975. This represented a satisfactory outcome to several years of negotiations in that virtually all the existing hill areas in the United Kingdom were deemed to meet the criteria of Article 3(4) of the Directive. As a result we were able to continue, with very little change, our well tried and long-standing arrangements for hill farmers, in areas extending to some 7·65 million hectares (almost 41 per cent. of our total agricultural land). The Agricultural Departments are studying the special problems of disadvantaged land outside the hill areas.House adjourned at twenty-seven minutes before seven o'clock.