asked Her Majesty's Government:To state the cost to public funds of maintaining a prisoner for a week in Brixton Prison.

is not possible to quote costs for individual prisons. Brixton is a local prison, and the average cost per inmate per week at all local prisons in 1980–81 was £168.A new costing system, which will lead to the compiling of costs on an individual establishment basis, starts on 1st April 1983.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the maximum amount paid to a police authority or to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police District in respect of a remand or sentenced prisoner held in police custody because of the present over-crowding in the prison system.

The cost of holding prisoners overnight in police custody is not assessed on a per capita basis but represents actual expenditure on staff, accommodation, and other items, which is determined by various factors in addition to the number of prisoners involved, and necessarily includes some fixed and stand-by charges. The use of police accommodation is largely confined to the Metropolitan Police District where the cost to the prison Department between January and October 1982 was £1,725,865 in respect of approximately 17,168 prisoner nights.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Into what Asian and other languages respectively cell information cards have been translated, and which of the cards have been so translated in the case of each of those languages.

The information cards about bail and appeals to the Crown Court have been translated into Urdu, Bengali, French and Italian and the card about diet into Urdu and Bengali.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list the countries with a higher percentage of their population in prison than in the United Kingdom.

In 1981 the average number of people in prison establishments in the United Kingdom was 90 per 100,000 population. Definitions of prisons and prisoners in other countries differ from those in the United Kingdom and comparable data for other countries could not be made available without incurring disproportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Details of the experiments carried out by the British Industrial Biological Research Association and the sources of funding are published in its annual report. The Government have funded a number of research projects undertaken by the association and made certain other grants.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What their policy is towards the employment of young people in the Civil Service under the proposed Youth Training Scheme.

The Government are considering what contribution the Civil Service can make to the Youth Training Scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What specific aid they are giving to the agricultural engineering industry.

In 1982–83 the Government expect to provide at least £1·3 million in assistance to the United Kingdom agricultural engineering industry. This compares with a figure of £854,000 for 1981–82. Over £½ million has already been committed to the industry for 1983–84 and we again expect in the event to spend well over £1 million. The main types of support are:

(a) Education—(£30,000 in 1982–83);

(b) Research and development—(£150,000 in 1982–83);

(c) Prototype evaluation—(£245,000 in 1982–83);

(d) Product development—(£625,000 in 1982–83).

(Support for Industry scheme.)

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the present rules in the Civil Service for time off on full pay for trade union work and to what extent these rules apply during an industrial dispute.

The present arrangements under which non-industrial civil servants who are representatives of recognised trade unions are allowed paid time off to carry out industrial relations duties and trade union activities are set out in the Civil Service National Whitley Council Revised Facilities Agreement. The agreement came into effect on 30th April this year and replaced an earlier agreement which had operated since 1974. The agreement makes it clear that facilities are not provided for activities consisting of the detailed planning, or the specific implementation, of a decision to take industrial action.Comparable facilities are provided for representatives of industrial unions in the Civil Service.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the number of word processors in use in the Treasury, the Department of the Environment, the Home Office, the Department of Transport, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department of Trade and the Department of Industry respectively.

The number of screen-based word processors in current use is as follows:

HM. Treasury	8
Departments of Environment and Transport (Common Services)	32
Home Office	7
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (not including posts overseas)	22
Department of Trade	34
Department of Industry	64

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have sought to establish with like-minded Governments arrangements for the reciprocal exchange of privileged communications reporting current tests of drugs and medicine on sale in either country and with what result.

Information supplied by pharmaceutical companies in connection with an application for a product licence must remain confidential for commercial reasons. Such information therefore cannot be supplied to the regulatory authority of another country without the permission of the applicant except to members of the European Community as required by our obligations under Community law.Summaries of information derived from adverse reactions reports received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines are however transmitted to the World Health Organisation who make them available to all member states.Data on medicinal products licensed in the United Kingdom are also available in a number of publications including the British National Formulary and Data Sheet Compendium.

asked Her Majest's Government:Whether they have any plans to reorganise the system under which a dozen supertoxics are the subject of investigation by an almost equal number of committees.

No. I can assure the noble Lord that the number of expert and specialist advisory committees investigating the very wide range of chemicals for any potential hazard to man, other animals and the environment is no more than necessary to give effective advice to Government.

asked Her Majesty's Government: In view of the fact that the deliberate abandonment of assets for the purpose of securing supplementary benefit or reducing the charge for Part III accommodation is not at present a criminal offence, what sanctions are applied to persons believed to have deliberately abandoned assets for the above purpose.

The sanction against a person who deliberately abandons his assets is that he may be treated as still possessing them. For supplementary benefit claimants that could mean loss of benefit, but for Part III residents it might result in an accumulating debt of unpaid charges. Although there is no centrally-held information, I understand that the powers to take into account abandoned assets are used only rarely.

asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether the automatic right of appeal against refusal of industrial disablement or death benefit, introduced on 19th May under SI 1982 No. 566 [The Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Amendment (No. 2)] applies to claims arising from employment before July 1945.

The provisions of SI 1982/566 (medical appeal rights in pneumoconiosis and byssinosis cases) apply only to claims under the industrial injuries scheme which arise from employment ending after 5th July 1948. Claims in respect of employment ending before that date are dealt with under the old cases schemes, to which the provisions of the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975 apply. Medical adjudication of claims in respect of pneumoconiosis and byssinosis under the old cases schemes continues arrangements made under the Workmen's Compensation Acts. Diagnosis is determined by a Silicosis Medical Board, which consists of specialist doctors drawn from the pneumoconiosis medical panels, and the decision is final. Arrangements do however exist for decisions to be reconsidered on application.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the number of new claims for industrial injury benefit presented in respect of (

Information in the form requested is not available centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.The following table relates to cases seen by pneumoconiosis medical boards in connection with claims for industrial disablement benefit because of asbestosis:—

Year	Cases seen	Disease diagnosed	Disease not diagnosed
1981	417	140	277
1980	427	144	283
1979	447	123	322

The following table shows the number of awards of industrial death benefit for (

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the evidence to support the estimate made by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on 19th November, 1982 (Commons

The estimate is based on information from various sources, including Ministry advisers.

NURSES, LODGING CHARGES
1 Grade		2 1981 Weekly Charge £	3 Agreed Increase in Weekly Charge (%) £	4 Net Basic Pay Increase (1) £	5 Difference Cols. 4–3 £	6 Estimated Net Increase in Take-Home Pay (2) £	7 Difference Cols. 6–3 £
1 st year student (3)		6·69	1·96(29%)	4·64	2·68	5·11	3·15
3rd year student		"	"	5·03	3·07	5·57	3·61
Nursing Auxiliary	(Min)	7·67	4·35 (57%)	4·42	0·07	5·30	0·95
	(Max)	"	"	5·62	1·27	6·78	2·43
SEN	(Min)	9·68	4·84 (50%)	5·62	0·78	6·66	1·82
	(Max)	"	"	6·78	1·94	8·05	3·21
Staff Nurse	(Min)	10·26	4·45 (43%)	6·27	1·82	7·32	2·87
	(Max)	"	"	7·62	3·17	8·93	4·48
Ward Sister	(Min)	13·33	7·82 (59%)	7·90	0·08	9·02	1·20
	(Max)	"	"	10·15	2·33	11·56	3·74
Nursing Officer I	(Min)	17·66	12·20(69%)	9·21	-2·99	9·75	-2·45
	(4) (Max)	"	"	10·96	-1·24	11·62	-0·58
Notes:
1. Represents increase in weekly basic pay net of tax, NI contributions and superannuation at standard rates.
2. Represents increase in estimated weekly earnings net of tax, NI contributions and superannuation at standard rates.
3. Students will pay fully economic charges (automatically abated by 40 per cent.) from 1st October 1982. Other staff will not pay the economic charge until 1984. For example, the economic charge in 1983 for a Staff Nurse would be £16·80 per week, but the actual charge due is £14·71 per week.
4. Very few nurses above ward sister level occupy lodgings.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether any claims made under any farm capital grants scheme in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available have not been met due to the exhaustion of the relevant vote, or the relevant EEC budget.

No.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To what amount living-in charges for various grades of nurses have been increased; and what will be the net effect of those increases on the proposed rise in their weekly pay.

Lodging charges for nurses are determined by the Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council. In 1981 the council reached an agreement whereby charges related to the full cost of providing the accommodation would be phased-in over four years up to 1984 (two years for students and other nurses under 22). In the light of the two-year pay settlement operative from 23rd August 1982 the council has now agreed that the increases due in the years 1982–83 and 1983–84 should be recovered over the period 1st October 1982 to 31st March 1984. The increase in weekly charges for the different standards of accommodation appropriate to selected nursing grades, together with estimates of the increases in net basic pay and earnings, are shown in the table below. It is estimated that only 10 per cent. of nurses live in hospital accommodation, and the great majority of these are students and other nurses under 22 for whom the charges are abated by 40 per cent.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will place in the Library a copy of the letter that the Earl Ferrers sent to the Chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) that arrived on 19th November, the date of the NCC's Council meeting to decide on the notification of the West Sedgemoor SSSI, and whether they will state on how many previous occasions Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Ministers have written letters to the Chairman of the NCC in an attempt to influence the decisions reached by the NCC's Council on the notification or protection of SSSIs.

I have frequent correspondence with the Chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council which it is not my practice to make public. However, I shall send the noble Lord a copy of the letter.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that Mr. Fred Elliot, a member of the National Farmers' Union's Council, stated publicly on 16th November, 1982 that if the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) did not halve the area of the proposed West Sedgemoor SSSI: "I am afraid to think of the consequences for relations between farmers and conservationists in the other parts of the Somerset Levels and moors where SSSIs are being talked about", whether they will take steps to prevent future attempts by the NFU to attack the NCC in this way, and whether they will confirm that such statements by the NFU do not accord with the co-operative approach to nature conservation which they claim to favour.

It is no business of the Government to try to prevent the National Farmers' Union, or any other body, from expressing its views. To the best of my knowledge, the policy of the NFU regarding the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 remains as set out in their press statement of 30th October, 1981, in which they welcomed the Act as a balanced piece of legislation which should command the support and confidence of farmers.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the reason for the constant delay—now 12 months overdue—of the report of the Committee on Pesticides in relation to dioxin, and when their report on Hodgkin's disease is expected.

Her Majesty's Government commissioned, in May of last year, a report from the Advisory Committee on Pesticides relating to a suggested association between exposure to phenoxy acid herbicides, wood preservatives, chlorophenols, or the contaminants which they may contain, and soft tissue sarcomas.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much in 1982 prices was paid to farmers and landowners through all capital agricultural grant schemes in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Public expenditure in the United Kingdom under the common agricultural policy (CAP) and on national grants and subsidies is published in Table 25 of the Annual Review of Agriculture. Totals for the last five years are as follows:

£ million
1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82
94·9	118·8	173·3	212·0	217·4

The figure for 1981–82 updates the forecast given in the most recent Annual Review White Paper (Cmnd. 8491).These figures are in cash terms and are not available in 1982 prices.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any recent facts or figures to substantiate widespread assertions that "illegal" or "underground" betting is on the increase and, if so, whether steps are being taken to meet this situation.

The level of illegal betting can only be a matter of subjective judgment; and there is no sound basis on which to judge whether it is increasing. All allegations of illegal betting which are reported are followed up as far as available evidence justifies and resources permit.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the present position regarding the initiation of a pilot combined heat and power scheme for domestic heating.

The Government are at present examining the consultant's report on the feasibility of combined heat and power/district heating in the nine areas announced by my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy on 12th March 1981 in another place. The views of local authorities and other interested parties are being taken into account in the examination.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have kept informed the US Government and the member states of the European Community of developments in the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela; and whether they have alerted these friendly nations to the dangers to peace which remain while Venezuela continues to impede development in and to make incursions into the territory west of the Essequibo, despite Venezuelan statements about a peaceful settlement to the border dispute.

We remain in touch with the United States, the European Community and with Commonwealth countries, all of whom are also following developments in the dispute with close attention. Meanwhile, we welcome Venezuelan statements that they continue to work for a peaceful settlement through the Geneva Agreement.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What diplomatic assistance they are giving to Guyana to achieve a speedy settlement, under the terms of the Geneva Agreement, of the border dispute with Venezuela; and what progress has been made in recent weeks.

We are not a party to the dispute itself but as a party to the Geneva Agreement we have made clear to Venezuela and Guyana the importance we attach to the achievement of a peaceful settlement through the agreement's procedures. We understand that contacts continue to take place directly between Venezuela and Guyana.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What further support they have given to Guyana during recent months at the World Bank in the question of aid for the Upper Mazarumi hydroelectric project; whether they are aware of continued blocking activity by Venezuela, which is effectively deferring a decision, although the bank has assessed it as technically and economically feasible; and where the matter now rests.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In how many cases in the last 12 months were there reports of breaches of safety regulations in respect of asbestos used in industry and in how many cases were prosecutions initiated and with what result.

Comprehensive information about

	Notices issued			Prosecutions completed
	Improvement notices	Prohibition notices	Relevant informations laid	Convictions	Withdrawn	Dismissed	Average fine per conviction £
Relating to precautions against inhalation or contact with asbestos	12	49	22	16	1	5	250
Similar information for local authorities is not available.

The issue has not been discussed in the World Bank board since October 1980 when, with the support of the United Kingdom representative, the bank approved an $8 million loan for a study of alternative hydro-electric schemes. That study has not yet been completed. However, the feasibility of the Upper Mazarumi project will depend, not only upon the availability of substantial funds from a number of sources, but also upon an assured demand for the power. A potential source of demand would be an aluminium smelter but, in the present depressed state of the aluminium industry, there is no immediate prospect of one being established in the area. I am aware that Venezuela has made representations to the World Bank in the past, but I am assured that the bank will make its decision on technical and economic grounds.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What specific steps they have taken, or propose to take, to encourage member states of the European community to close steel works and cut back capacity as stated in their statement of 20th December 1982, so as to help the British Steel Corporation to achieve their objectives without further reduction in the number of persons employed in the steel industry.

Her Majesty's Government have stressed to the Commission, whose responsibility it is to administer the State Aids Decision (2320/81/ECSC), the importance they attach to strict and fair implementation of the rules, so that state aids are not authorised unless accompanied by commensurate cuts in steel-making capacity. The Government have left the other Governments of the European Community in no doubt that the capacity cuts in the United Kingdom steel industry must be matched by other member states. But the Government have also made clear that the current programme of redundancies and smaller plant closures by the British Steel Corporation is essential if the Corporation is to stem its mounting losses.reports of alleged breaches of relevant regulations made to the Health and Safety Executive, or of possible breaches noted during inspection and resolved by informal action such as oral or written advice, is not readily available. The table below gives provisional information about relevant notices issued and prosecutions completed by the Health and Safety Executive in the 12 months ending September 1982.