asked Majesty's Government:Whether the experiment of accommodating civilian prisoners in army camps has proved satisfactory and whether further expansion of this attempt to combat over-crowding of prisoners is contemplated.

Earlier this year, two Ministry of Defence camps were declared to be prisons under Section 33(2) of the Prison Act 1952. The successful operation of these prisons has helped to relieve the pressure on accommodation caused by the record levels which the prison population has reached this year, but my right honourable friend does not think that it is at present necessary or practicable to declare any further camps to be prisons.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What decisions have been reached regarding the revision of the Standing Orders related to the rights of prisoners and the means of informing prisoners of these rights.

The revision of the Prison Department Standing Order on prisoners' correspondence, visits and petitions is complete. The new order has been issued to staff and a copy is in the Library of the House. It will be published when it comes into force on 1st December 1981 and copies will then be available to prisoners in prison libraries. Revision of the remaining Standing Orders, which is a very considerable task, has begun and they will be made available to prisoners on the same basis as and when they are complete.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the following figures for total company liquidations are correct:—

The annual figures for 1975 to 1980 for total company liquidations (compulsory and creditors' voluntary) are indeed correct. The figure of 4,559 quoted for the first half of 1981 is not compiled from official statistics and is understood to be calculated on a different basis. Owing to industrial action official figures of creditors' voluntary and hence total company liquidations are not available for individual months from April onwards so that a total for the first six months of 1981 cannot be given. Figures for the first nine months as a whole will be available shortly.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have ratified the ILO Convention No. 147 on minimum standards on merchant vessels.

Yes, on 28th November 1980.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will now answer in the nearest possible form his Written Question of 13th July 1981, namely, "What are the most recent figures available to them on safety of navigation between Ushant and Dover with particular reference to the presence on board or not, as the case may be, of pilots, distinguishing between pilots from various British ports and from various non-British ports", which they answered on 22nd July 1981 as follows: "The information is not available in the form requested".

My department keeps statistics in relation to casualties involving United Kingdom registered ships wherever they occur, but casualties involving foreign ships are recorded only when they occur within the limit of United Kingdom territorial waters. In 1979, the most recent year for which figures are available, in the sea area bounded by a line joining Land's End with Pointe de St.-Mathieu in the west and a line joining North Foreland with Dunkirk in the east, there were eight casualties to United Kingdom registered ships and to foreign ships that were within United Kingdom territorial waters at the time of the incident. In the same year I believe there were at least a further 15 casualties in the Dover Strait, in the sea area bounded by the Greenwich meridian in the west and a line joining North Foreland and Dunkirk in the east. There is no record that a pilot was on hoard any of the vessels concerned at the time these incidents occurred.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What decisions were reached at the conference of 22 nations in Mexico in August to prepare for the summit meeting in October to end the gulf between rich and poor nations.

The conference decided on the format for the forthcoming Summit at Cancun, Mexico. It was further agreed not to engage in detailed negotiations but to provide an opportunity for an informal exchange of views on a number of major issues including food security, agricultural development, trade and industrialisation, energy, and monetary and financial issues.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will urge within NATO the acceptance of the offer by the Soviet Union to reduce to a comparable level the number of its medium-range nuclear systems based in its western regions in return for the non-deployment of cruise and Pershing missiles.

No. NATO at present has no long-range land-based missile systems in Europe; deployments of cruise and Pershing missiles are not planned to take place until 1983. Thus, any unilateral reductions made by the Soviet Union short of the dismantling of all their long-range land-based missile systems within range of NATO-Europe could not therefore remove the massive superiority which the Soviet Union currently enjoys. As was made clear in 1979 NATO is prepared to review its theatre nuclear force modernisation programme in the light of concrete results reached through negotiations. We hope that these negotiations due to start on 30th November will achieve equal ceilings at the lowest possible level.

to ask Her Majesty's Government:What action they are taking to ensure that MSC-trained computer programmers can, if otherwise suitable, join the Civil Service at Executive Officer level even if they do not hold two A-levels.

A number of reviews of automatic data processing in the Civil Service have concluded that computer programming should continue to be undertaken by Executive Officers in the Administration Group, and that such staff must be capable of performing the full range of executive duties not just the specialised work of programming. It is important that the standard of the Executive Officer grade be maintained by recruiting direct entrants with the intellectual ability and potential to fill the middle management and some senior management posts of the future. Accordingly it is proposed to continue recruiting directly to the grade of Executive Officer only those who meet the minimum academic requirements of 5 GCE passes with 2 of them at A-level.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps they will take to implement the recommendations of the Report of the Agriculture Select Committee of the House of Commons (H.C. 406-1) on animal welfare in poultry, pig and veal calf production.

The Government will respond to the report when they have completed their consultations with the Farm Animal Welfare Council and interested organisations.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) is failing to make any impact upon public concern on the several sectors of animal welfare (eg transport, intensive animal husbandry, and slaughter) compared with the relative success of the Select Committee of the House of Commons in the field of animal welfare in poultry, pig and veal calf production; and whether FAWC will publish a report of its work up to the present.

The Farm Animal Welfare Council was set up to advise Ministers. In its first two years it has made a most valuable contribution to the welfare of farm animals, a contribution which is reflected in the report of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee to which the noble Lord refers. The Farm Animal Welfare Council has advised Ministers on proposals to revise the legislation relating to the welfare of animals when being exported and when being transported by sea. It is at present considering proposals to revise the legislation on the transport of poultry by road and rail, and for a code of practice on the transport of farm animals and horses by air.The council has carried out a detailed review of the codes of recommendations for the welfare of cattle and pigs and has advised Ministers on their revision. The council is currently actively reviewing the codes for domestic fowls and turkeys. The council has examined certain husbandry procedures involving the mutilation of farm animals and it has investigated the harvesting of antlers in velvet from live deer. Reports submitted to Ministers on both subjects have been published. The council has also decided to publicise the advice which it is submitting to Ministers on the European Commission's proposals for a directive laying down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens kept in battery cages. A review into the welfare of animals at the time of slaughter is now in progress and a report on the slaughter of poultry, which is to be published, will be submitted to Ministers very soon. The council has invited comments from interested parties and the public as the first step in a similar review related to red meat animals. The council decides in each case whether the reports or advice it submits to Ministers should be published.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have anything to add to the reply given to the Question by Lord Houghton of Sowerby on 9th April 1981 (col. 754) regarding exports of live food animals to Greece.

The Greek authorities have informed Her Majesty's Government that a new law came into effect in June 1981 regarding the Council of Europe Convention for the protection of animals for slaughter. The convention is intended to protect the welfare of farm animals at the place of slaughter and includes the requirement that, with certain exceptions including the use of religious slaughter methods, animals must be stunned before slaughter. There have been no exports of farm animals to Greece for slaughter or further fattening since 9th April.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the current policy of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) on the grant-aiding of new farm buildings in national parks means that if a national park authority grant aids additional costs incurred by a farmer to improve the siting or design of the building, 22¼ per cent. of the national park authority's grant goes to reduce MAFF's expenditure not the farmer's; what duplication, if any, this procedure avoids; and why MAFF should benefit from public funds designed to improve the quality of the landscape in national parks.

As I explained in an earlier reply to the noble Lord on 24th July, under the present capital grant schemes grant may be paid on all the capital expenditure which is incurred for an eligible agricultural building, including expenditure to improve its siting or design in order to take account of conservation considerations. However, in cases where, in respect of part of a project, an applicant elects to receive grant from another publicly funded body, grant is allowed only on that part of the expenditure which is not otherwise assisted. This is general practice in order to avoid giving assistance on the same expenditure more than once from public funds.House adjourned at seventeen minutes past ten o'clock.