asked Her Majesty's Government:How much the English Industrial Estates Corporation has invested since 1st April 1980 in small workshop premises under 2,500 square feet in the more heavily assisted areas.

In the period from 1st April 1980 to 30th May 1981 the English Industrial Estates Corporation spent:

£401,300 on building workshops below 2,500 sq. ft.

£1,371,000 on building small factories below 2,500 sq. ft. (these are built to a higher specification than workshops).

In addition the Development Commission spent £1,891,000 on small factories which the EIEC built and now manages. The corporation's expenditure is confined to the assisted areas and is concentrated in the travel-to-work areas with the highest levels of unemployment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How they would reconcile the figures for the increase in indirect taxation as a percentage of total consumption expenditure given in the Written Answer of 3rd June 1981 (Vol. 420, col. 1341) which showed that between 1978–79 and 1979–80 the increase was 0·6 per cent. for the person with two-thirds average earnings, 1·4 per cent. for the person on average earnings and 1·9 per cent. for the person with 1½ times average earnings, with the figures published in

The figures contained in the publications mentioned are aggregates for the country as a whole. The figures given in the reply to the noble Lord on 3rd June 1981 are estimates for one specimen household type only and based on stylised assumptions concerning tax allowances claimed and the sources and uses of income. The estimates are necessarily based on data from the Family Expenditure Survey and do not therefore represent an average for the population as a whole. It is well known that such estimates cannot be reconciled with national accounts data. Further, the coverage of taxes is slightly different between the two sources.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have undertaken to pay the costs and, if so, whose costs and on what scale, of the forthcoming Stansted Airport Inquiry.

As I said in response to my noble friend on 21st May, (Vol. 420, cols. 1012–1014), the Government will, in accordance with normal practice, pay the cost of providing the inspector and his assessors. In addition, in this exceptional case, the Government will also pay the costs of accommodation for the inquiry which would otherwise fall on the local planning authority, that is, the Uttlesford District Council. How much the accommodation will cost will depend on what premises are used and how long the inquiry lasts.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the present state of negotiations concerning the future of Belize.

Talks with Guatemala to negotiate the instruments necessary to give effect to the Heads of Agreement signed in March are expected to resume in early July.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What plans they have to improve the audibility of the BBC external services.

The BBC's external services are a valuable national asset but they are often not easy to hear. The Government are now determined that a major effort should be made to improve audibility. In consultation with the BBC, they have drawn up a long-term programme. Some progress has already been made, notably two medium wave transmitters now in Cyprus and four short wave ones due next year. A medium wave transmitter will also come on stream then at Orfordness.The new programme envisages existing relay stations being fed by satellite by 1985, eight modern short wave transmitters operational in the United Kingdom by 1985, and six more by 1987 and new relay stations being established to cover East Africa and the Far East. There will also be substantial plant replacement and a thorough modernisation of Bush House.Putting this capital programme into effect at the optimum speed would require an increase in the present PESC provision for expenditure by the external services from 1983–84 onwards. The Government would be prepared to make a substantial increase in the grant-in-aid to help meet this. However, in these days of financial stringency we must look for a proportion of the extra costs to be met from the external services' current operations. The reductions in planned expenditure decided in 1979 were met entirely from the capital provision in both 1980–81 and 1981–82. The Government have accordingly requested the BBC to make net savings in current services of about £3 million per annum—in forecast cash prices—from 1982–83 onwards.The savings will involve a reduction of 58 hours per week out of a total of 726 hours of broadcasts in all languages, or about 8 per cent. The 24 hours a day of the BBC's World Service in English will not be cut and will be heard more clearly, as will the remaining vernacular services. Under the BBC's licence and agreement which the other place has recently reviewed, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary is empowered to prescribe the languages and hours of external services programmes. He does so after taking into account the national interests and available funds. Funds are very limited and the external services have already been exempted from the cuts on most Government spending plans announced last November.In the difficult task of deciding which services to end we have looked first to the transcription services which are a net charge of nearly £1 million on the grant-in-aid. We recognise the value of providing to overseas broadcasting stations recordings in such fields as music, drama and entertainment, but we do not consider them essential. We have looked next to broadcasts to friendly neighbouring countries where Britain's voice is already well heard, namely French to France, and Spanish to Spain, Italian and Maltese. It was particularly hard to choose services to the third world. We have chosen from each continent a service directed to one country or confined area only; namely, Portuguese to Brazil, Burmese and Somali. In no case does the ending of the vernacular service imply any diminution of the excellent relations we enjoy with the country concerned. In all cases not only will the World Service in English continue—it will be heard more clearly as a result of the steps we plan to take to improve audibility.The Government believe that the first priority must be to ensure that the BBC can be heard. If audibility is to be improved there must be a switch in resources from current to capital expenditure. In being asked to re-order its priorities, the BBC is being treated no differently from other publicly funded bodies which are currently facing the decisions required to manage within limited funds. Assuming the required savings of some £3 million per annum are achieved by 1982–83 the Government would be prepared to contribute a substantially larger amount from 1983–84 onwards to meet the balance needed to implement the capital programme as planned.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their latest estimate of the cost of extending the availability of the long-term rate of supplementary benefit to those unemployed for

To extend the long-term rate of supplementary benefit to those who have been unemployed and in receipt of supplementary benefit for over 12 months and for over 24 months would cost, at November 1980 benefit rates, about £130 million and about £70 million respectively in a full year. At December 1980, 375,000 and 200,000 unemployed people respectively came into these categories. I regret that similar information relating to those unemployed for over six months is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.House adjourned at sixteen minutes before eight o'clock.