asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will provide a list of Treaties which have been signed between the Soviet Union and the Western Alliance since 1970, the terms of which the Soviet Union has not fulfilled.

No treaties have been signed since 1970 between the Soviet Union and the Western Alliance as such. There is cause for concern over the Soviet Union's fulfilment of certain clauses of the Helsinki Final Act, which was signed in 1975 by 35 countries, including the Soviet Union and all NATO members. However, this is not a treaty and is not legally binding.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will:

I assume the noble Viscount is referring to conventional forces. In view of the preponderance of in-place forces in Europe in favour of the Warsaw Pact, NATO would need to deploy substantially greater numbers of almost all its main equipment to achieve parity of deployment (in many cases, increasing numbers by two or three times) with corresponding increases in manpower. This in turn would necessitate very substantial increases in the defence spending of NATO members, although it would require further study to establish even approximately the cost of achieving such parity.Moreover, defence spending alone could hardly remove the geographic imbalance between the two alliances: reinforcements from North America would need to travel 6,000 kilometres across the ocean whereas it is only 650 kilometres overland from the western borders of the USSR to central Europe.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have received a formal request from Mr. A. M. Ratcliff to occupy Henderson Island in the South Pacific; what terms and conditions Mr. Ratcliff has proposed for his occupancy; what representations about this proposal they have received; what advice they have received from the Nature Conservancy Council about this proposal; whether they agree with the view expressed in the International Biological Programme's Report in 1968 that Henderson Island should be preserved as an "island for science"; and when they expect to reach a decision on Mr. Ratcliff's proposals.

We have received a request from Mr. A. M. Ratcliff for permission to reside upon Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Group. The exact terms and conditions for any such occupancy have not been determined. Mr. Ratcliff has proposed that, in return for granting the right for himself and his dependants to live on Henderson Island, he would donate U.S. $1 million to Pitcairn Islands funds and would provide the islanders with certain other facilities, such as transport. We are giving the proposal full and careful consideration, in consultation with the Island Council. We have received representations from various conservation groups, including the Nature Conservancy Council, who have urged us to take environmental factors into consideration, which we shall do. A solution in the best overall interests of the Pitcairn Islands and the islanders themselves is still being sought.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have signed the Convention on Conservation of Nature in the South Pacific and, if not, when they expect to do so; and whether they will state how many countries have so far signed the Convention.

We have not signed the Convention on the Conservation of Nature in the Pacific and this is not being considered at present. Only three countries have so far signed the Convention: France, Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) have been unable to renotify any sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset, and only one in Devon, since Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act came into force; how many SSSIs there are in each county; and when the NCC expect to have finished renotifying all these sites.

Many of the sites involved require some redrawing of boundaries which must be precise because of the need to register the land. The NCC are also concerned that renotifications do not take place until they have fully explained the effect to owners and occupiers. This work is staff intensive and has inevitably meant a gradual start, but the NCC hope to make considerable progress in 1983 and move substantially towards completion by the following year.