asked Her Majesty's Government:How many young prisoners were reclassified as adults in the last period for which figures are available.

During 1979 about 1,800 young prisoners were reclassified as adults.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the reason for segregating each of the men in Albany, Dartmoor, Parkhurst and Wakefield prisons who in 1980 were segregated for more than 100 days on any occasion, giving in each case the reason why the Secretary of State or a member of the Board of Visitors approved renewal of the segregation beyond a period of a month; and whether any of the prisoners made representations to the Governor, the Board of Visitors or the Secretary of State about his segregation and the outcome.

The information requested is not held centrally. I will write to the noble Lord.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the quantity of largactil, depixol and chloral hydrate respectively ordered by the prison medical department in England and Wales and in Scotland respectively, in 1979 and 1980 respectively and the average prison population in each system for each of these years.

These medical supplies are not ordered centrally and the information requested could only be obtained at disporportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish a table showing for 1978 and 1980, the total number of doses and the quantity issued of psychotropic drugs, of hypnotic drugs and drugs acting on the central nervous system other than those already mentioned in the previous two categories, in Holloway, Styal, Cookham Wood and Parkhurst respectively; and within the above tables, whether they will identify separately the quantities of largactil, depixol and chloral hydrate prescribed at each prison.

The available information is published in Appendix 6 to the report of the work of the Prison Department 1979. The information for 1980 is being collated. Details of the prescriptions of particular drugs are not collected and could only be obtained at disproportionate expense.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many applications for citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies were received in each of the last six months of 1980, how many applications were outstanding on 31st December 1980, and how many staff were in post on 31st December 1980.

The information is as follows:

	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
Number of applications received	4,166	3,109	4,028	4,756	4,184	4,193

The number of applications outstanding on 31st December 1980 was 54,369.The number of staff in post on this date was 216.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why, in answering applications for resumption of citizenship under Section 1 of the British Nationality Act 1964, overseas posts do not inform persons who had neither a father or grandfather born, registered or naturalised in the United Kingdom that they may nevertheless apply and that the Secretary of State may grant the resumption of citizenship to persons lacking the qualifying connection at his discretion; why the notes provided with the applica- tion form R16 do not give this information either; whether the discretion has been liberally interpreted, as predicted by the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations and for the Colonies in the House of Lords on 28th November 1963; how many registrations there were under Section 1 of the Act in each of the years 1976 to 1980 inclusive; how many in each of those years were at the Secretary of State's discretion, and whether they will amend the present Nationality Bill as so to provide that applicants wrongly advised by British posts overseas that they were not eligible to resume citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, or that there was no provision in the British Nationality Acts for them to be registered as citizens, should be notified personally of their rights and given an appropriate period of, say, two years, in which to submit fresh applications.

I am not aware that overseas posts act in the way the noble Lord suggests. The notes provided with the application form R16 indicate that the Secretary of State may register at his discretion any person who lacks the qualifying connection but who has renounced his or her citizenship in the circumstances specified in the Act. The notes also advise such a person how to complete the application form. In exercising the discretion it has been the practice over the years to look for a degree of connection with the United Kingdom at the time citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies was renounced. The interpretation of the discretion has I think been in the spirit of the remarks made by the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations and for the Colonies in this House on 28th November 1963. Figures for registration for the years 1976 and 1980 are set out in the table below.I am not persuaded that there is a need for the British Nationality Bill be be amended as the noble

	Naturalisation			Registration at discretion(1)
				(Section 5A(2) of the BNA 1948)
	1978	1979	1980	1978	1979	1980
Number of applications granted	1,755	1,914	5,669	585	501	1,156
Number of applications refused	222	556	1,119	80	81	204
Reasons for refusal(2):
(a) Failure to meet statutory residential requirements etc.	83	217	483	28	9	21
(b) Failure to meet requirement as to character (criminal record, bankruptcy, insolvency, dubious business or other record, deception, etc.)	57	130	249	29	28	77
(c) Failure to meet language requirement	31	114	190	6	19	34
(d) Failure to meet requirements as to future residential intentions	45	109	264	28	28	73
(e) Other reasons	14	8	15	—	2	7
(1) The initial processing of these applications is different to that of naturalisation applications. Unlike those for naturalisation, these totals of applications refused do not include applications which fail at the initial examination, for example because of lack of qualifying residence.
(2) An application may be refused for more than one reason. The number of applicants refused in any one year will therefore not necessarily agree with the total of reasons for that year.

Information as to how many persons were advised that they should not re-apply for at least two years could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many persons who applied for naturalisation as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies were refused in 1980; how many of those refused were advised that they should not re-apply for at least two years; whether they will give an analysis of the reasons for refusal in each of the years 1978 to 1980 inclusive; and whether they will give a similar analysis of the applications for discretionary registration granted and refused in those years.

See table attached.The figures are as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Which countries have agreed to ratify the establishment of UNCTAD's Common Fund for commodities; which countries have indicated that they will meet their financial obligations; what these amounts are and which have paid; what percentage of the Fund's capital has to be promised before it comes into operation; and when this is anticipated.

By 5th February 1981, 24 states had signed the Agreement establishing the UNCTAD Common Fund for commodities. None of them had ratified it. The states concerned are Indonesia, Netherlands, Ecuador, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France, USA, China, Japan, Venezuela, United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Bangladesh, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Canada, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Portugal and Zambia. The shares of directly contributed capital accounted for by the 24 signatory states would, if eventually subscribed, amount to US 218.8 million dollars, or 46.5 per cent. of subscriptions to the total capital requirement of US 450 million dollars. In addition, pledges of voluntary contributions to the Second Account of the Fund so far amount to approximately US 232.5 million dollars, or 83 per cent. of the target of US 280 million dollars. No payments of either sort are due until after the Agreement establishing the Common Fund has entered into force. Entry into force will take place after at least 90 states, accounting for not less than two-thirds of directly contributed capital, have ratified the Agreement, and provided that these requirements have been fulfilled by 31st March 1982 or, failing that, by such later date as may be decided upon by those states which have by then ratified the Agreement.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What have been the consequences so far of the request by the Development Commission that its "Special Investment Areas" and the rural parts of "Assisted Areas" be designated as "Rural Areas" under the Housing Act 1980 and what further results are expected.

Of the 18 districts of which, as my honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Construction announced last week, parts are to be designated as rural areas, 16 consist either wholly or in part of a special investment area. In deciding on which areas should be designated, my honourable friend considered all the representations he had received, including those from the Development Commission.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the Soviet sailing schooner "Zarya" asked for and obtained permission to conduct research into the geological structure of the seabed off Scotland during the summer of 1980.

No permission has been granted for any Soviet vessel to carry out research on the United Kingdom's continental shelf in recent years. If the noble Lord will let me have further details of this particular case, I shall be happy to look into it.

ask Her Majesty's Government:What communications they have had with the Albanian authorities regarding the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Albania and with what results; and whether they will now make a fresh offer of talks on the matter without any preconditions.

Last year we formally proposed to the Albanian Government that diplomatic relations should be restored without waiting for a resolution of the financial problems which had previously stood in the way. Regrettably the Albanians have not agreed. The offer remains open and we remain ready for talks without preconditions.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why, considering that the economics of motoring provide a strong disincentive to the use of studded snow tyres under inappropriate road conditions, they consider it necessary to forbid their use under any conditions whatsoever.

There are no legal provisions which prohibit the use of studded tyres when conditions are suitable for them. In unsuitable circumstances their use is probably illegal under the general provisions of the Construction and Use Regulations, which require tyres to be suitable having regard to the use to which they are being put.House adjourned at seventeen minutes past eight o'clock.