asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the nuclear attack pattern drawn up by the Home Office and based on 179 bombs with a total yield of 193 megatons was used for casualty assessment purposes, and if so when it was last used for that purpose and whether the casualty estimates arising from that assessment were published and if not whether they will now publish them.

It was not drawn up to provide casualty estimates for policy or planning purposes. I would refer the noble Lord to the reply I gave to his Question on 12th May [Official Report, 12/5/83; col. 696.]. The attack pattern was referred to in a paper delivered to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1981 by the then Deputy Director of the Home Office Scientific Advisory Branch to illustrate a method of predicting damage and casualty effects. The paper was reproduced in The Nuclear Arms Race: Control or Catrastrophe, C.F. Barnaby and G. P. Thomas (Eds), Frances Pinter (1982) pp. 135–163.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will make a statement about the recruitment of officials of British nationality to the institutions of the EEC; and whether they will say whether recent improvements in procedures in the United Kingdom are adequate.

A competition for recruitment to the A grades of the Commission of the European Communities was held in the spring of last year. More candidates of British-nationality were successful in reaching the reserve lists from which appointments are made than candidates of any one other member state and there is every reason to expect this excellent performance to be reflected in the number of appointments made. Her Majesty's Government hope that the recent improvements in procedures in the United Kingdom have been instrumental in achieving this result. The Government will continue to seek to encourage applicants for vacancies in EC institutions and will make further improvements in the procedures under their control if experience shows this to be necessary.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend to make an oral statement to the House about the theatre museum before the parliamentary recess.

I think it unlikely that I shall be able within the next few days to make a substantive new statement on the theatre museum. As I explained in reply to the noble Lords Unstarred Question on 12th July. the Government remain committed to the project. The signing of an agreement to enter into a lease was postponed because the agreement stipulated a timetable for completion of the building works, financed by the Government, and funds to enable an immediate start could not be guaranteed in the light of the cash limit reductions for 1983–84. The Government are now re-examining urgently with the GLC the terms of the agreement. We are also exploring possible ways of securing an early building start without calling on Government funds in this financial year, including the possibility of contributions from private sources. As soon as there is further news I will write to the noble Lord.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will borrow enough money from one of their wealthy supporters to enable them to put down a deposit on the Covent Garden theatre museum site.

The proposed theatre museum site is owned by the Greater London Council and would be leased to the Property Services Agency; no question of a deposit arises for this purpose. The signing of an agreement to enter into a lease was postponed because the agreement stipulated a timetable for completion of the building works, financed by the Government, and funds to enable an immediate start could not be guaranteed in the light of the cash limit reductions for 1983–84. The Government remain committed to the project and are now reviewing with the GLC terms of the agreement, in order to facilitate progress. I am also exploring possible ways of securing an early building start without calling on Government funds in this financial year, including the possibility of contributions from private sources.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When Section 2 of the Disabled Persons Act 1981 relating to penalties for the misuse of concessions for the disabled in parking places will come into operation and why there has been a delay in its implementation.

This section came into operation on 27th October 1981.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish a descriptive list of all the data fields contained in the computer records relating to individual persons in England, Wales and Scotland respectively, and, where the content of a field is a coded value whether they will list all the possible values which the field can contain, together with the interpretation of the codes.

No; there is no central list held at present, and the information required could only be collected at disproportionate cost. The noble lord will be aware of the provisions of the Data Protection Bill which govern the registration of data users and the right of access to personal data.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the figures of public expenditure for the current financial year at constant prices:—

The Government's expenditure plans for 1983–84 were set out in the 1983 public expenditure White Paper (Cmnd. 8789) as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will establish a public inquiry into conditions at St. Helier hostel, Carshalton, where it is alleged that 50 nurses have one bath, one cooker and no fridge between them, and into complaints about other hostels made in a survey by the

No. The provision of residential accommodation of a reasonable standard for nurses is a matter for individual health authorities. We are actively encouraging health authorities to pay particular consideration to the improvement of buildings and maintenance of the entire National Health Service estate, including residential accommodation for staff.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend to proceed with the implementation of Part II of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and whether they will make a statement.

Yes. My right honourable friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment, for Scotland and for Wales are continuing with the phased implementation programme for Part II, announced in another place by my honourable friend the Member for Pudsey on 15th February 1982 in a reply to a question by my honourable friend the Member for Reading West. However, some revision of the previously announced timetable is now needed to take account of the extensive nature of the necessary public consultations. It is the intention to introduce Phase 1 in two stages: the first stage, an order which initially exempts certain discharges from control, to be in force in August this year; the second stage, the remainder of Phase 1, to come into force in November. No change to the announced timing of the subsequent phases is proposed.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they intend to respond to the Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, on Oil Pollution of the Sea (Cmnd. 8358), which has been with Ministers for the past two years and was presented to Parliament in October 1981.

The Government's response to the Royal Commission's Eighth Report should he published in the near future.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have received complaints of distress being caused to private tenants by high rent increases agreed by rent officers and rent assessment committees; what guidance the Government have given; and what information is available to landlords and tenants concerning the criteria and calculations on which new rents are proposed.

The Government receive representations about the levels of fair rents from both landlords and tenants. Rent officers and rent assessment committees are statutorily independent and no specific guidance is issued to them about the level of rents they should set. They have a duty to reach their own decision using criteria set out in Section 70 of the Rent Act 1977. The Department of the Environment and the Welsh Office publish a number of explanatory booklets in the Housing Booklets series, including Regulated Tenancies, which describes the rent registration system in detail. These are available free of charge from the departments and rent officers. The departments also make their Statistical Notes for Rent Officers available to the public on payment of a small fee to cover copying charges.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that the arbitrary revenue recovery target for the 1:25,000 scale map series imposed on the Ordnance Survey is causing the OS to refuse permission to local voluntary organisations to base footpath maps on OS copyright material, thereby depriving those who walk in the countryside of information shown on such footpath maps but not shown on OS maps.

Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain at a scale of 1:25,000 are Exchequer supported and show footpaths. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment feels that it would be an unreasonable burden on the taxpayer to allow the income from Ordnance Survey maps sales to be undermined by maps copied from Ordnance Survey material. The publication of other information about footpaths is not restricted by Ordnance Survey.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps have been taken to draw the attention of courts to the power available to them under Section 93 of the Companies Act 1981.

All courts were, as a matter of routine, informed of the provisions of the Companies Act 1981. The extent to which the powers in Section 93 are used is a matter for the courts themselves.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will place in the library of the House a copy of an English translation of a letter addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations by Xanana Gusmao, military commander of Fretilin, requesting the Secretary-General to send. a mission to East Timor, calling for the withdrawal of troops from the territory, and asking for his assistance in promoting an act of self-determination, in accordance with the resolution of the General Assembly on East Timor of November 1982.

So far as we are aware, no letter has yet been received.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will consult the Royal British Legion and other service charities about possible assistance to war widows who wish to visit their husbands' graves, in cases where this is practicable.

The Royal British Legion arrange visits on a limited scale to war cemeteries in Europe and North Africa. My department already consults them about these visits.