asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will amend Circular Instruction 5/1976 so as to provide that, where a prisoner wishes to write to a Member of either House of Parliament or to submit a petition or application to the European Commission, the Secretary of State or either House of Parliament, he may be provided with a typewriter for this purpose, so as to ensure where possible that no difficulty arises in deciphering the submission.

We have no plans to amend this Circular Instruction which already allows prisoners to type the limited range of material which we consider justified.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have noted a recent Act of the United States Congress making production of the new 155mm nuclear (neutron) shell dependent on a public statement by one other NATO country that it will accept deployment of that shell; whether they would agree to be that country; and whether they will make a statement.

The production of new American weapons systems is a matter for the United States Government. We understand, however, that no final decision has been taken on the form of the new nuclear shell for 155mm artillery pieces. The United States Government have not approached the European allies about the deployment of the new shell, which would not be due until the late 1980s. Its short range makes it most unlikely that NATO would wish to deploy it in the United Kingdom.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they expect the Department of Education and Science regional reports on provisions for the hearing impaired and provisions for the visually handicapped to be completed.

The reports of the nine regional conferences of England on provision for the hearing impaired and for the visually handicapped will be completed by the end of July 1983. The reports will signal the end of the first round of consultation on provision for the hearing impaired and the second round of consultation on provision for the visually handicapped.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In respect of each of the following hospitals, what were (1) the number of authorised beds for resident private patients (Section 65) as at 30th September, and (2) the average daily percentage occupancy of those beds by private patients during the previous 12 months, in each hospital, for the years: 1977–78, 1978–79,1979–80,1980–81 and 1981–82:

(i) In each case, except that of Luton and Dunstable Hospital, the hospitals share an authorisation under Section 65 with other hospitals adminis- tered by the same health authority. The table below shows the individual authorisation for each hospital, where one applied, plus in brackets, the limit for the appropriate group as a whole.

	September
	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982
Luton and Dunstable Hospital	13	9	8	7	7	7*
Norfolk and Norwich Hospital	35(35)	30(30)	28(28)	28(28)	28(28)	28(28)
Clatterbridge Hospital	14(28)	14(15)	14(15)	14(15)	14(15)	-(15*)
Manchester Royal Infirmary	-(62)	-(62)	-(62)	-(43)	-(43)	-(43)
Northwick Park Hospital	12(13)	12(13)	12(13)	12(13)	12(13)	12(13)
Bristol Royal Infirmary	-(6)	-(6)	-(5)	-(3)	-(3)	(-6)
St. Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth	9(15)	9(15)	9(14)	9(14)	9(14)	-(14*)
General Ifirmary, Leeds	-(29)	-(58)	-(58)	-(29)	-(29)	-(29)
*plus two additional beds for emergency admissions only.

(ii) Authorisations under Section 65 of the NHS Act 1977 represent the maximum number of private resident patients that may be admitted to that hospital or group of hospitals at any one time. The number of beds actually available for such patients at a particular hospital will vary with other requirements in that hospital and the number of private patients at other hospitals within the same group. It is not possible, therefore, to give the percentage occupancy of private patient beds but the average daily number of private resident patients for each year to 31st December was as follows:

	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982
Luton and Dunstable Hospital	4·0	3·4	3·6	4·8	4·5	2·6
Norfolk and Norwich Hospital	16·5	16·9	19·0	16·2	18·9	8·5
Clatterbridge Hospital	4·0	3·7	2·4	3·2	4·5	. .
Manchester Royal Infirmary	30·3	23·8	21·3	21·9	20·2	16·5
Northwick Park Hospital	8·8	7·4	5·9	5·1	. .	2·2
Bristol Royal Infirmary	0·6	0·5	0·5	1·0	0·5	0·5
St. Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth	3·5	3·8	3·0	4·4	5·1	5·0
General Infirmary, Leeds	19·7	14·8	10·0	11·1	9·7	. .
	not available.