asked Her Majesty's Government:How much public money has been provided for investment in each of the nationalised industries in the years 1979–80 and 1980–81.

Nationalised industries finance their capital requirements from internally generated resources as well as by borrowing; and it is only their external finance which counts as public expenditure. The following table shows the external financial requirements, of which grants and net borrowing from the National Loans Fund are charged to Government accounts; the other components are included in the public expenditure planning totals. Corresponding figures for capital requirements and internal resources in the two years in question are set out in Table 3.3 of Cmnd. 8175 and Table 17A of the 1981–82 Financial Statement and Budget Report.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Who has been appointed head of the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund, and on what grounds the nomination of Sir Geoffrey Howe was opposed by the representatives of developing countries.

The honourable Allan J. MacEachen, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada, became chairman of the Interim Committee on 21st May in Libreville. The second part of the question does not reflect what occurred. There were two nominations, there was no formal vote and a number of constituencies expressed no preference. Only one or two representatives gave reasons for supporting a nomination, and in no case did a representative advance argument against the other nomination.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will provide the following information in addition to that given in their Written Answer of 14th May 1981, H. L. Deb. col. 681, for the same type of cases and for the same years, in respect of—

The figures requested are as follows:

Earnings	Year	Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions as % of Gross Earnings	Total Indirect Taxes as % of Consumption Expenditure
	1978–79
⅔ average		22·2	30·7
average		28·0	27·5
1½ x average		31·8	25·1
	1979–80
⅔ average		21·4	31·3
average		26·4	28·9
1½ x average		29·8	27·0
	1980–81
⅔ average		22·8	32·0
average		27·4	29·3
1½ x average		30·5	27·4
	1981–82
⅔ average		25·1	34·3
average		29·3	31·2
1½ x average		32·1	28·8

The figures for 1981–82 were calculated on the illustrative assumption that earnings between 1980–81 and 1981–82 increase in line with the forecast growth in prices, that is by 10½ per cent. Since the share of income tax and the NICs is calculated with respect to gross income, whereas the share of indirect taxes relates only to that part of gross income which is spent, the figures in the two columns cannot be aggregated to give an overall calculation of the tax burden.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In view of statements that there is a surplus of dwellings over households of 980,000 and that some 550,000 dwellings may be empty at any one time, whether they will state:

Following are the latest estimates for England:

	Dwellings (000)	Source
(a) Unfit for human habitation	794	(1)
(b) Requiring repairs costing £1,000 or more	2,236	(1)
(c) Second homes	120	(2)
(d) Mainly let for holiday purposes	Not available
(e) Non-permanent dwellings occupied at the Census	71	(3)
(f) "Blighted" by proposals for demolition with 5 years	Not available

asked Her Majesty's Government:What grants from EEC funds have been or are likely to be made available for extending facilities for ritual slaughter of animals in Britain and whether it is now their policy to regard the new industry of Islamic slaughter as falling within the exceptions to Section 36 of the Slaughterhouses Act 1974.

Investment projects for extending or improving facilities for the slaughtering of animals—including those which may involve ritual slaughter—in the United Kingdom have been able to compete for FEOGA grants under the Community's Marketing and Processing Grant Aid Scheme as set out in EEC Regulation No. 355/77. However, for such projects in England to be eligible they must also have been awarded a grant under the United Kingdom Redmeat Slaughterhouse Industry Scheme, applications for which closed on 30th November 1980. Any slaughtering of animals by the Jewish or the Moslem method for the food of Jews or Moslems would be covered by the exemption from the pre-slaughter stunning requirement provided that the conditions laid down in the Act are met.House adjourned at seven minutes past eleven o'clock.