asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will ratify the United Nations convention calling for effective measures to prevent the torture of prisoners.

The United Kingdom hopes shortly to sign the United Nations Convention on Torture. It is not yet possible to say when ratification will be possible.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they accept the conclusion of the National Academy of Science's report,

The Government note that, in the view of the chairman of the US National Research Council, the report "can only be viewed as an interim statement"; and that the reporting committee of the council concludes, "there are enormous uncertainties involved in the calculations" and that it "cannot subscribe with confidence to any specific quantitative conclusions drawn from calculations based on current scientific knowledge". These judgments confirm the Government's understanding of the need for the more detailed work already in hand, and support also its view that, in the meantime, it would not be sensible to anticipate the validation of the hypothesis. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library of the House.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will issue a circular instruction to governors of prisons in England and Wales to record the ethnic origins of prison visitors.

No. Prison visitors are private individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds who volunteer to visit and befriend a number of prisoners, some of whom have no other visitors. To record the ethnic origins of those who undertake this voluntary work would serve no useful purpose.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will confirm that all gas produced from existing and future fields on the United Kingdom continental shelf will continue to be landed in the United Kingdom throughout the production life of such fields.

It is the present policy of this Government to maintain the requirement that gas produced from the United Kingdom continental shelf should be landed in the United Kingdom. This is kept under review as the development of our offshore potential continues.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state in respect of licences to kill cormorant to prevent serious damage to fisheries in 1984 in England and Wales:

In England and Wales, 13 applications were made in 1984 for licences to kill or take cormorants to prevent damage to fisheries.On one application, previous experience at the site had shown that other measures to deter cormorants had proved effective. Consideration of the application has been deferred until these other measures have been tried.The advice of the Nature Conservancy Council was sought in the remaining 12 cases. Six applications were refused, one applications is still being considered and five licences were issued, one of which was against the advice of the Nature Conservancy Council.The five licences granted permitted the killing of up to 36 birds. So far, four birds have been killed, although one licence remains extant. No birds were killed under the licence issued against NCC advice.Licence applications are treated in confidence, so it would not be appropriate to list the names of the licensees.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, in view of the improved climate at the conference on disarmament at Geneva, their delegation will support a Comprehensive Disarmament Programme.

We continue to believe in a practical step-by-step approach to disarmament, not wide-ranging declaratory programmes. If further discussion of the Comprehensive Programme at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament in 1985 seemed to offer a practical means of advancing disarmament, then the United Kingdom would join others in pursuing it further.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To state what guarantees of the property rights of British citizens in Hong Kong are embodied in the treaty recently signed with the republic of China.

Property rights in Hong Kong after 1st July 1997 are fully provided for in the Sino-British agreement. Section VI of Annex 1 to the Joint Declaration states:

"Rights concerning the ownership of property, including those relating to acquisition, use, disposal, inheritance and compensation for lawful deprivation (corresponding to the real value of the property concerned, freely convertible and paid without undue delay) shall continue to be protected by law".

Paragraph 1 of Annex III to the Joint Declaration also provides that all rights in relation to land leases extending beyond 30th June 1997 will be recognised and protected under the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much revenue would be raised by the abolition of VAT rebates for overseas visitors, assuming that expenditure by the visitors remained constant.

I regret that no information is available on which to base such an estimate.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many areas of land in public ownership within the New Forest are banned to the New Forest Buckhounds, where these areas are situated and whether they will instruct the Forestry Commission to issue maps of such areas to anyone requesting them, at a reasonable charge if necessary, so that the public may know where the hunt may or may not go.

There are three areas in the Crown lands of the New Forest which the Buckhounds may cross over but where they are asked not to hunt. These are Queen's Meadow, Bolderwood Fields and Rhinefield Ornamental Drive. They are easily identifiable and we see no reason to instruct the Forestry Commission to issue maps to the public.