asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will place in the Library a copy of any report of a complaint under the Police Act into the raid by police on 11 houses in Railton Road, London, S.E.24, in July 1981; and whether they will make any further statement to the House about the subject matter of the complaint.

This was the subject of a special report made by the Police Complaints Board to my right honourable friend to which they referred in their annual report published on 13th April (H.C. 278). My right honourable friend's statement repeated in this House on 29th October 1981 [H.L. debates, cols, 1127–1132] confirmed that the important lessons learnt from the execution of the operation will be taken fully into account in the future.The board's report was the first and so far the only such report made under Section 8(2) of the Police Act 1976, which empowers the board to make a report on any matters coming to its notice to which it considers attention should be drawn by reason of their gravity or other exceptional circumstances. A copy of the report has now been placed in the Library, together with a copy of my right honourable friend's reply in which he shared the board's concern and was satisfied after further inquiry that the Metropolitan Police had been quick to respond to the immediate and longer-term implications of these incidents.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the incidence of TB cases notified during the last three years for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and also say whether there has been an increase of notifications in the East End of London.

The information requested is shown in the following table.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they will make an announcement about the appointment of a new chairman for the Nature Conservancy Council.

I am pleased to announce that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has today appointed Mr. William Wilkinson as Chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council. Mr. Wilkinson is 50 years old and has been a director of Kleinwort Benson Limited for the past 10 years. He has had a lifelong involvement with conservation. He has been a keen ornithologist for many years and is currently the Hon. Treasurer of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He is a vice-chairman of the Game Conservancy and a board member of West Palearctic Birds Limited. Mr. Wilkinson's management background and his knowledge of and concern for the natural environment make him ideally suited to lead the Nature Conservancy Council.I should like to take this opportunity of paying tribute to the retiring chairman, Sir Ralph Verney, for the dedicated way in which he has carried out his duties during a period of considerable change and great significance for nature conservation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What changes they propose in the supplementary benefit claims of people who are sacked or leave their jobs voluntarily, how many applicants are involved at present and what provision is made for their dependants.

Regulation 8 of the Supplementary Benefit Requirements Regulations requires supplementary benefit to be reduced for a maximum period of six weeks if a person is disqualified (or would be disqualified) from receiving unemployment benefit because of, broadly speaking, voluntary unemployment. The standard rate of deduction is 40 per cent. of the single person's scale-rate but a lower deduction (half the standard rate) is made in certain circumstances, prescribed by the regulations, where there might otherwise be hardship. No deductions are made from the benefit awarded for wives and dependants.The latest information about the number of claimants affected by this rule derives from the 1981 Supplementary Benefit Statistical Enquiry. This showed that on one day in December 1981 there were some 14,600 cases with such deductions, of which 4,900 were at the lower rate. The Social Security Advisory Committee has been asked to consider proposals to amend this regulation so that the lower rate of deduction would apply only in cases where there is pregnancy or serious illness in the family. This is because it has been found in practice that the present regulations have resulted in the lower deduction being applied in many cases where there was no real risk of hardship at all. Thus, while only 2 per cent. of all deductions were at the lower rate before the present regulations were introduced in November 1980, this had risen to 34 per cent. by December 1981.The Government believe that most people would agree that to give up work voluntarily or refuse employment without good cause should attract a substantial benefit penalty unless, exceptionally, this would cause real hardship.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What emphasis is being put in broadcasts to the USSR upon the apparent contradiction between Soviet propaganda against the USA alongside the dependence of the Russian people upon imports of grain from America amounting to one-tenth of their total needs.

The content of the BBC External Services' programmes is a matter for the BBC. These programmes have frequently drawn attention to Soviet propaganda against the United States and have also covered the question of United States' grain exports to the USSR. For the past two years the USSR has not published figures of its domestic grain harvest and it is not therefore possible to calculate its precise dependence on United States' grain.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish in the

It would be inappropriate to publish in the Official Report this lengthy declaration of the Warsaw Pact.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will bring forward legislation to implement the recommendations contained in the 1980 Report of the Law Commission on insurance contract law.

Following extensive consultations on this report, the Government have decided to introduce a Bill, as soon as legislative time is available, broadly on the lines of the Law Commission's proposals in Cmnd 8064, but limited to private consumer insurance contracts. The Bill would apply to Scotland as well as England and Wales. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has it in mind that the Bill should extend to Northern Ireland; he will be seeking the views of the Northern Ireland Assembly on the Government's proposals.