asked Her Majesty's Government: When they will give a decision on an application for the release on licence of a female prisoner in Armagh Prison, submitted by her solicitor in early January, 1982 and raised in a letter, from a Member of this House to the Minister responsible, dated 16th March, 1982.

:No prisoner serving a fixed sentence in Northern Ireland can e released on licence: release before 50 per cent. of a fixed sentence has been served is exceptional and requires the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of mercy. The case to which the noble Lord refers has been under continuous review for some time in the light of all relevant considerations, to see if it would be necessary and proper to recommend the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of mercy. I hope to let the noble Lord know the conclusions of the current stage of this review within a week or so.

asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether they will make a statment, when they have studied evidence, on payments for the removal of rubbish in Wandsworth.

I assume that the evidence to which the noble Lord refers is the cuttings from a Wandsworth newspaper which he sent to me recently. The Wandsworth Borough Council's investigations of the cases mentioned in the articles found none of the complaints to be substantiated and no evidence of demands for payment of money being made.

asked Her Majesty's Government: When the Deer Act 1963 will be revised in Statutes in Force.

I am advised that the Statutes in Force Cumulative Supplement for the group Animals (ISBN 0 11 804257 2) which was published on 20th May 1982 revises the text of the Deer Act 1963 up to 1st March 1982 by setting out amendments to that Act made up to that date. No material amendments have been made since 1st March 1982. Printer's copy for a revised re-issue of the Act dated 1st January 1983, incorporating the amendments in the Cumulative Supplement, has been prepared and it is expected that this re-issue will be published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in April or May 1983.

asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether they will place in the Library a copy of the report by Dr. Peter Greenfield on "generic substitution" of drugs in the National Health Service

I shall place in the Library a copy of the report by the Informal Working Group on Effective Prescribing as soon as this is published.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that experts at the Brompton Chest and Heart Hospital consider that smoking is even more damaging to the heart than the lungs and that all forms of smoking are involved; whether in these circumstances it would appear desirable that all tobacco and not merely cigarettes should carry a health warning; and whether they will attend to this as a matter of urgency.

Cigarette smoking is a powerful and independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, particularly at younger ages; but the overall evidence suggests the pipe and cigar smokers run little, if any, excess risk of coronary heart disease, provided they do not inhale. We have no plans to extend the health warning to products other than cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will look at the Blands Scheme for a multi-use development of Her Majesty's Dockyard in Gibraltar in greater depth than they would appear to have done so far, bearing in mind that—

The Blands proposals, along with 7 others, were considered in detail by consultants appointed to advise the Government of Gibraltar. The consultants concluded that the Blands proposals did not meet the requirements for an enterprise to take the place of the naval dockyard to the same extent as those put forward by A & P Appledore International Limited, whom they recommend as the preferred potential commercial operator. The Gibraltar Government and Her Majesty's Government have agreed to take discussions forward on the basis of this advice.