asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish a table showing the number of findings of guilt for offences of drunkenness per 100,000 in the population for males in England and Wales of those aged 14 and under 18; 18 and under 21; 21 and under 30; 30 and under 60; and 60 and over, in each of the years from 1957 to to 1981 inclusive.

The information requested for the years 1957 to 1980 is given in the following table.More detailed figures for the latest year are to be found in the annual Home Office Statistical Bulletin

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the prison authorities stopped a letter written by Mr. David J. Cheesman, a prisoner in Wormwood Scrubs, to a Peer, dated on or after 19th June, containing factual information about life sentence prisoners, in violation of Standing Order 505 which states that—"A letter to a Member may only be stopped if it includes a complaint about prison treatment or prison staff that has not been raised through the prescribed procedure for remedying the grievance"and whether they will immediately cause the letter to be delivered to the Member.

The letter in question was stopped because it was felt that it conflicted with Standing Order 5B 40 and 5B 34 (iv) in that Mr. Cheesman was asking the Member to pass to a third party, on his behalf, information intended for publication referring to identifiable individuals, which he had been told he was not permitted under standing orders to pass direct. However, in view of the unqualified terms of SO 5D 5, I have now directed that the letter should be delivered to the Member.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the number of prisoners killed, or injured to the extent that medical treatment was necessary, respectively, in each of the years 1975 to 1981 inclusive, in Parkhurst and Albany prisons respectively.

In Albany, the only death not resulting from natural causes or suicide during this period occured in 1975. In Parkhurst one such death occured in 1978 and one in 1981. Information about the number of injuries resulting in medical treatment could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The number of accidents or injuries including self-inflicted injuries, which were reported was as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they expect to publish a discussion paper on the up-dating of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876.

The Government are continuing their further study of detailed proposals for giving effect to their intention to improve and modernise the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876. Plans for carrying this forward will be announced as soon as the study is completed.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When the annual statistics of experiments on living animals for 1981, under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, will be published.

Publication is not expected before the end of the summer, but will be as soon as practicable.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend either to introduce or to amend legislation so as to prohibit the use of video on large screens in public performance.

Under the Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1982, which comes into force on 13th October, cinematograph licensing arrangements will apply to exhibitions involving the use of video equipment of all kinds in the same way as to those given by means of film projection equipment. Any such exhibition to which the public are admitted on payment or which is otherwise promoted for private gain will have to conform with the cinema safety regulations and with film censorship requirements imposed by the licensing authority. Such an exhibition will also be subject to the provisions of the Obscene Publications Act 1959. The Government are not aware of any need for additional legislative restrictions.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What decision the European Court of Justice made on a complaint that the Equal Pay Act does not require employers to agree to job evaluation and what action they propose to take arising from such a decision.

The European Court has concluded that the provisions of the Equal Pay Act 1970 on equal pay for work of equal value do not fully comply with the EEC's Equal Pay Directive. The Government will now study the terms of the judgment and consider what action is necessary to ensure that we meet our treaty obligations.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why it was necessary for over 1,500 women in Northern Ireland to travel to other parts of the United Kingdom to obtain abortions in 1980, and if the explanation is a different law in Northern Ireland, when this discrimination against women in Northern Ireland will be removed.

Her Majesty's Government have already said that it has no plans at present to extend the Abortion Act 1967 to Northern Ireland. Under Northern Ireland law abortions may only be carried out where the mother or child is at substantial medical risk. It is not possible without disproportionate cost to estimate how many of the women from Northern Ireland who secure abortions in Great Britain could have had them in Northern Ireland.

asked Her Majesty's Government:The reason for the delay in the publication of the consultation document prescribing the bodies that will adjudicate on questions of access to public buildings under Section 6 of the Disabled Persons Act 1981 and Section 37 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1981, and whether they will publish it.

In a circular issued in April 1982 the Government undertook to consult on the implementation of Section 6 of the Disabled Persons Act 1981. The consultation letters for Scotland were sent out on 27th May and for England and Wales on 5th July. We consider that this was not an excessive time in which to complete the documents for a complex issue including 10 Government departments.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will instruct the Inland Revenue officials to reverse their decisions to end the longstanding arrangement under which self-employed freelance journalists have been taxed under Schedule D and instead to require newspaper managements to place them on PAYE, in view of the serious effect this will have on the employment of such journalists.

Whether a journalist is taxable under Schedule D or PAYE depends on the facts. An appeal procedure exists for any person who disputes the application of PAYE to his earnings.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, bearing in mind the desirability of reducing the lead intake of the population from all sources, they will consider the compulsory fitting of lead trap silencers to all new cars and to older cars requiring replacement of their silencers.

The Government's decision to reduce the lead emissions from all petrol-engined motor vehicles by half by the end of 1985 is a significant reduction in the lead emission level from petrol. Filters are an option which have been seriously considered, but further action does not seem necessary at present in the light of the most recent evidence.House adjourned at four minutes past eleven o'clock.