asked Her Majesty's Government:When they intend to bring the British Nationality Act into force.

Subject to the necessary preparatory work being completed in time, 1st January 1983.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many of the 803 persons against whom deportation orders were made under Section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1971 following a court recommendation, and of the 1,665 persons against whom deportation orders were made under Section 3(5) of that Act following a decision by the Secretary of State respectively in 1980 were held in custody under Schedule 2 to that Act, and what was the total number of person/years imprisonment arising from the use of Schedule 2 powers for these purposes.

I regret that the information requested is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the total spending by all local authorities and its division between current and capital spending for each of the years: 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980 and estimated for 1981, all figures calculated in 1980 prices.

Following is the available information for the United Kingdom:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What proportion of local authorities' total spending was financed by the Exchequer in each of the years: 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, and estimated for 1981.

The proportion of total (current and capital) local authority expenditure (excluding debt interest) in the United Kingdom financed by the Exchequer^* was:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What were total numbers of people employed by local authorities and their division between main categories of employment for each of the years: 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1981.

The available information for Great Britain is set out below in Table 1 for 1955, 1960, 1965 and 1970 and in Table 2 for 1980 and 1981. Table 2 also includes figures for England and Wales only in 1975, there being no figures available on a comparable basis for Scotland in that year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What have been the total costs to public funds since 1976 of all fees, consultation, subsistence and related costs incurred by successive Governments in defending unsuccessfully Her Majesty's Government's position in the case brought before the European Court of Human Rights by the three British ex-Railwaymen sacked under Government legislation of 1974 of 1978.

It is not possible to estimate the cost to public funds of the time spent by the Government's Law Officers and officials with respect to this case because the time concerned cannot be distinguished from that spent on other duties. It is estimated that since 1976 subsistence and disbursements, other than the cost of the time of the Government's Law Officers and officials, have amounted to approximately £17,000. This figure includes fees and expenses paid to counsel which it has been the practice of successive Governments not to disclose separately.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the total amount of grants received by rating authorities in Scotland for 1979–80 and for 1980–81 respectively, in respect of rebates under the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978, which have been paid to:

£2.2 million and £3.4 million have been paid to local authorities in respect of rebates granted during 1979–80 and 1980–81, respectively, under the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978. These are not final amounts for the years in question since audited claims have not been received from all rating authorities. No record is held centrally of the classes of recipient to whom rebates are paid.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To specify the occasion and terms of any statement made by a responsible Minister in Parliament or publicly elsewhere before tthe enactment of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 in which it was suggested that the powers conferred on the police by Section 2 of the Act could, and might, be used in the manner and for the purposes for which they were in fact used by Strathclyde Police on Monday, 23rd November 1981, at Glasgow Green, to detain 108 persons attending a political rally there.

The circumstances in which the powers conferred by Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 were exercised by Strathclyde Police in Glasgow Green on 23rd November 1981 were not the subject of a ministerial statement before the enactment of the Act.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, having regard to the fact that the decision of the Secretary of State for Scotland to grant permission for the enlargement of the NATO base at Stornoway, Lewis, was avowedly based upon considerations of defence strategy which were not allowed to be canvassed at the public local inquiry preceding the decision, they will ensure that the objectors are reimbursed for their legal costs and expenses in attending or being represented at the public local inquiry.

No. It is a long-established practice in relation to planning inquiries to make no award of expenses, except perhaps where one party has suffered from unreasonable behaviour by another party.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What level of

A sale of land of outstanding scientific interest by private treaty to the Nature Conservancy Council would not result in any charge to capital transfer tax or capital gains tax. The benefit of the exemption would be shared between the vendor and the Nature Conservancy Council under the so called douceur arrangement, the former's share being 10 per cent. The douceur arrangement does not apply to private treaty purchases by the RSPB or any other organisation which is not among the bodies referred to in paragraph 12 of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 1975.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To list the countries, without giving classified details, with which contracts for military equipment were signed during 1980, and which were notified to the Ministry of Defence.

It has been the practice of successive Governments not to publish details of individual overseas sales of military equipment. Below is a list of countries with which contracts for military equipment were signed during 1980 and which were notified to the Ministry of Defence. As such, the list, although substantially correct, may not be completely comprehensive because not all private orders, particularly those of a minor nature, have to be notified to the Defence Sales Organisation. All exports of military equipment as defined in Group 1 of the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1978 are, of course, carefully controlled and subject to the granting of an export licence by the Department of Trade.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the present situation of Andrei Sakharov and Anatoly Shcharansky; and what action the Government have taken.

It has been reported that Academician Sakharov's step-daughter-in-law, Lisa Alexeyeva, was told on 9th December by a Soviet official that she would be allowed to emigrate and that, on hearing of this decision, Academician and Mrs. Sakharov had ended their hunger strike. We understand that Lisa Alexeyeva will be allowed to visit the Sakharovs in Gorky in a few days' time. These reports, if confirmed, are a matter of deep satisfaction. The Foreign Ministers of the Ten member states of the European Community had issued a statement on 8th December urging the Soviet Government to allow Lisa Alexeyeva to leave the Soviet Union. There are also reports that Anatoly Shcharansky has been sentenced to a further term of three years and returned from his labour camp to a closed prison. The Government deeply regret the continued ill-treatment of Mr. Shcharansky. At the Madrid Review Meeting and in bilateral contacts with the Soviet authorities, we have repeatedly raised his case, and those of many others suffering for their beliefs in the Soviet Union.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have decided to follow the recommendations in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's report on credit card franchise services, and whether they will make a statement.

The commission made two recommendations. First, they recommended that the Joint Credit Card Company, (Access) Barclays, American Express, Diners Club and other suppliers of credit card franchise services should be obliged to abandon the "no discrimination" policy, under which they excluded or restricted a trader's freedom to charge different prices for goods or services purchased by credit card from those charged for by other means of payment, and that the terms of the existing contracts providing for this should be declared unenforceable and future introduction of such provisions made illegal. Secondly, they recommend that both the Joint Credit Card Company and Barclays should give assurances to the Director General of Fair Trading that they would not in future discuss matters which were likely to lessen the degree of competition between them in supplying reference services. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade has decided against action on the first of these recommendations. Action has been taken on the second.I should make clear the effect of this decision. At present, differential pricing, and in particular the imposition of such surcharges for credit card users, is a matter for arrangements between traders and the credit card companies. As the commission reported, most credit card companies have arrangements with traders which do not allow traders any freedom to surcharge. The effect of my right honourable friend's decision is to leave those arrangements unchanged.In taking this decision my right honourable friend has carefully considered the report's findings and recommendations. He accepts the analysis in the report; and, as regards surcharges, he has considered the undoubted case made in the report for removing the restrictions currently placed on traders' freedom to surcharge. Much of this case rests on arguments about the efficient use of resources in the economy, and about price distortion through cross-subsidisation between cash and credit card customers. At the moment the distorting effect of the "no discrimination" rule is minimal because the proportion of traders' sales represented by credit card payments is generally very small. But my right honourable friend recognises that the risk of distortion is greatest where the proportion of trade is greatest, although even in the petrol sector the proportion is relatively small.Against the economic argument my right honourable friend has had to weigh consumer convenience. Bearing in mind the possible effects on tourism my right honourable friend has also had to consider international practice. Since the report was published, surcharging, while mainly prevalent in the petrol sector, has spread into others leading to a wide measure of confusion and inconvenience to consumers. Any general requirement that traders should display information about surcharges would impose undue burdens on traders, be difficult to enforce, and probably still leave consumers confused. My right honourable friend believes the evidence shows that the absence of surcharges makes for general convenience; and he has, on the balance of the arguments, reached his decision accordingly.My right honourable friend recognises that the Government's decision will come as a disappointment to petrol retailers, who have made representations about the impact of the credit card companies' charges on their profit margins if they were unable to impose surcharges. The Government would be taking steps to keep itself informed of the progress of arrangements made between the card companies and the petrol retail trade.But the report clearly points to the need for the credit card industry to reconsider existing patterns for charging for the services they offer. The two principal United Kingdom credit card companies (operating Access and Barclaycard) have stated that they are taking steps to do so. My right honourable friend hopes that they will be ready to act on the evidence in the report and the commission's observations, and he will take careful note of the steps which they take both now and in the future.I must make clear that, while not acting on the commission's main finding, my right honourable friend intends to maintain pressure for greater competition and a fair charging structure in the credit card market as it develops. In accordance with the report's suggestion he is asking the Director General to keep this market under review. The Director General will consider in due course whether to make a further reference to the commission, covering the companies' services to both traders and cardholders, as the Monopolies and Mergers Commission suggested in their report. As to the commission's second recommendation both companies have stated that discussions of the kind criticised by the commission have not taken place for a number of years and will not take place in the future.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on the Supply of Trading Check Services is to be published, and whether they will make a statement.

The report is being published today. The commission's main findings were that scale monopoly situations existed in favour of Provident Financial Group Limited (Provident) and that a complex monopoly situation existed in favour of Provident, Cattle's (Holdings) Limited (Cattle's), Compass Paget Limited (Compass Paget) and those other suppliers of trading check franchise services which employed a "no discrimination" policy whereby they excluded or restricted a retailer's freedom to charge, on presentation of trading checks, vouchers and bonds, prices different from those charged in the case of cash or other means of payment.The commission did not find that Provident's scale monopoly operated against the public interest; but they concluded that the complex monopoly situation operated against the public interest inasmuch as it had the effect of preventing a retailer from competing with other retailers by offering different prices to users of reference services and other customers, so depriving customers of an important choice in purchasing goods or services and, in some cases, possibly leading to increased prices generally to all a retailer's customers.The commission also found that Provident's practice of including in its agreements with some retailers a restriction on dealing with other trading check suppliers operated against the public interest because, although Provident might not actively have enforced the restriction, it might have been regarded by retailers, in whose agreements it appeared, as still binding upon them and so had the effect of leading them to restrict their use of the services of other trading check suppliers and reducing competition in the supply of trading check franchise services.The commission made two recommendations. They recommended that Provident, Cattle's Compass Paget and other suppliers of trading check franchise services should be obliged to abandon the "no discrimination "policy, that the terms of any existing contracts between suppliers and retailers providing for this should be declared unenforceable, and that it should be illegal to include such terms in any new contracts. They also recommended that Provident be asked to give an appropriate undertaking to the Director General of Fair Trading that the provision restricting retailers from dealing with other trading check suppliers would not appear in new retailer agreements (except agreements with "scheme operators") and that all the company's existing retailers (apart from "scheme operators") would be formally notified that the provision was no longer effective.The commission also made two suggestions. First, they suggested that consideration be given to what means could be used to ensure that retailers gave customers adequate notice of any difference between prices charged for trading check and other sales. Second, they suggested that, when sufficient time had elapsed for a proper assessment to be made of the effect of the advertisements and quotations regulations under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 on the practices of the check trading business and the use of credit by customers, the Department of Trade and the Office of Fair Trading should consider whether a more extensive disclosure of annual percentage rates of the total charge for small amounts of credit would be in the public interest, and whether it might be prudent to avoid raising above £30 the present limit exempting certain credit agreements from the legislation.The commission found parallelism in the charges made to customers by the principal companies and considered that this limited to some extent price competition between them. However, they made no recommendation on this issue in view of the likelihood that competition from other forms of credit would increasingly modify the restrictive effect. They also found that charges to customers were higher than charges for most other forms of consumer credit, but in view of the difficulty of allocating costs accurately between franchisees and consumers could not judge whether the charges were excessive.The commission found that the discount rates charged to retailers were high. Retailers were prepared to accept the rates mainly because in most cases the charges made in any one year were relatively low, and because they acknowledged that the service was costly to the trading check companies, mainly owing to the arrangements for collection of payments from customers' homes.Finally, the commission found that the profitability of the check trading companies compared favourably with that of other finance companies, but they concluded that profits were not excessive, even in the case of Provident, who were the largest, and until 1979, the most profitable of the trading check companies.My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade has carefully considered the Commission's conclusions and recommendations. He accepts the commission's recommendations that Provident should not include in new retailer agreements (except agreements with "scheme operators") a provision restricting retailers from dealing with other trading check suppliers and should formally notify all the existing retailers (apart from "scheme operators") that the provision is no longer effective. He is asking the Director General to seek an appropriate undertaking, from Provident.