asked Her Majesty's Government:How many prisoners are at present serving sentences of life imprisonment in England and Wales; how many of these have already been detained for (a) between 10 and 14 years and (b) longer than 14 years; and how many prisoners (if any) who are serving fixed sentences have already been detained for more than 10 years.

On 30th November 1978, 1,389 people in Prison Department establishments in England and Wales were serving sentences of life imprisonment or detention during Her Majesty's pleasure under Section 53(1) or detained for life under Section 53(2) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. One hundred and thirty of them had been detained since their sentence for between 10 and 14 years and 33 for more than 14 years. These figures do not include those who had previously been released on licence from a life sentence and who had subsequently been recalled to prison. On the same date there were 13 people in Prison Department establishments in England and Wales serving determinate sentences who had been detained for more than 10 years since their sentence.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To what extent they have implemented Section 13 of the Transport Act 1978 in so far as it affects the movement of freight.

I have nothing to add to the Answer my noble friend Lady Birk gave to the noble Lord on 16th November last.

Table 1 Premature retirements in the public interest by Departments
Department	1974	1975*	1976	1977	1978
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries amp; Food	32	6	3	20	23
Cabinet Office	—	—	4	2	1
Civil Service Department	—	4	19	19	5
Customs and Excise	5	9	16	22	16
Ministry of Defence	151	108	254	520	433
Department of Education amp; Science (including Victoria amp; Albert Science Museum)	1	8	17	16	11
Department of Employment Group‡	9	2	6	11	4
Department of Energy	—	1	4	6	3
Department of Environment	9	115	11	18	50
Department of Health and Social Security	4	7	13	7	14
Home Office	—	7	8	8	5
Central Office of Information	—	—	1	4	2
Inland Revenue	—	12	9	27	3
Land Registry	1	1	—	2	—
Lord Chancellor's Department	1	2	—	3	1
Department for National Savings	7	8	2	165	110
Ordnance Survey	2	5	—	6	11
Royal Mint	—	11	21	1	—
Scottish Office	1	2	22	11	23
HM Stationery Office	2	—	3	3	—
Department of Trade, Industry, Prices amp; Consumer Protection	4	4	9	115	31
Department of Transport	—	—	—	3	27
HM Treasury	—	1	2	3	—
Others	17	4	15	16	12
TOTAL	246	317	439	1,008	785

Table 2 Premature retirements in the public interest by groups of grades within the Administration Group
	1974	1975*	1976	1977	1978†
Administrative	14	12	67	119	85
Executive	10	10	43	242	183
Clerical	68	67	61	145	83
Notes:
(i) The above figures are compiled from data held centrally and are subject to review in respect of errors and omissions. The totals given at Table 1 are slightly different from those given on 23rd January because of source data revisions;
(ii) *From 1975 the figures exclude those for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office;
(iii) †The figures for 1978 are those which are currently available: these may be updated as further details become available;
(iv) ‡Includes Department of Employment, Employment Services Division, Health and Safety Executive, Training Services Division and Manpower Services Commission;
(v) The details in Table 1 relate to non-industrial civil servants who retired prematurely in the public interest on grounds of redundancy, on structural grounds and on grounds of limited efficiency in the years specified. The corresponding figures of industrial civil servants, to whom premature retirement on grounds of redundancy only applies, are not available centrally.
(vi) In Table 2 the Clerical group comprises Clerical Assistants and Clerical Officers, the Executive group comprises Executive Officers, Higher Executive Officers and Senior Executive Officers and the Administrative group comprises Principals, Senior Principals and Assistant Secretaries.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state, pursuant to the Answer given by the Leader of the House on 23rd January concerning the number of civil servants required to resign prematurely before the minimum retirement age in the years 1974–78 inclusive, in which Departments these officials formerly served and how many served in the clerical, executive and administrative grades respectively.

The information requested by the noble Lord is set out in the table below:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will lodge all submissions received on the Green Paper

Submissions received on the Green Paper form part of Home Office records, and the question of their eventual transfer to the Public Record Office will be decided in accordance with the provisions of the Public Records Act 1958, as amended by the Public Records Act 1967.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans for reviewing the Sale of Goods Act 1893.

The Government recognise the need for a thorough-going examination of the rights of buyers where the goods are defective. Accordingly, I have asked the Law Commission to consider—

(a) whether the undertakings as to the quality and fitness of goods implied under the law relating to sale of goods, hire-purchase and other contracts for the supply of goods require amendment;

(b) the circumstances in which a person, to whom goods are supplied under a contract of sale, hire-purchase or other contract for the supply of goods, is entitled, where there has been a breach of the supplier of a term implied by statute, to—

(i) reject the goods and treat the contract as repudiated;

(ii) claim against the supplier a diminution in or extinction of the price;

(iii) claim damages against the supplier;

(c) the circumstances in which, by reason of the Sale of Goods Act 1893, a buyer loses the right to reject the goods; and to make recommendations.

This reference will provide an opportunity for consideration in the light of modern conditions of the remedies available in law to both private consumers and to other buyers for major and minor defects in goods.The Scottish Law Commission already has these matters within the scope of its programme of work and I hope that the two Law Commissions will co-operate as the need arises.House adjourned at six minutes past eleven o'clock.