asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the current statutory duties, rights and responsibilities of local authority elected members.

The evidence to be sumitted in due course to the Widdicombe Committee by the department is likely to cover the points raised by the noble Baroness. It is because the rights, responsibilities and duties of councillors are unclear that this issue has been referred to the committee. Copies of the department's evidence will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government;Whether they will confirm that pharmacist contractors will receive £45 million more for National Health Service dispensing in the year beginning 1st April 1985 (as reported in

Remuneration of pharmacist contractors is a repayment to them of the labour and overhead costs they incur in the provision of the NHS dispensing service plus a negotiated rate of profit. Settlements are reached prospectively and therefore depend on forecasts. Any errors in those forecasts are corrected in following years. The additional remuneration which is to be paid in the financial year ending 31st March 1986 totals £45 million.This comprises:

£11.882 million	underpayment in the period 1st January 1984 to 31st December 1984 and reflects errors of forecasting in the previous settlement.
£4.940 million	in respect of the period 1st January 1985 to 31st March 1985. This is an ad hoc settlement to offer a new settlement date of 1st April.
£28.233 million	which is a forecast of the sums which will fall due for the period 1st April 1985, to 31st March 1986.

This remuneration settlement is not in any way affected by the introduction of the selected list of drugs.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What, on an annual basis from 1963 to the latest available year, has been the annual percentage change in indices of basic weekly and hourly rates of wages and of normal weekly hours of manual workers:

The available information is given in the table below.

Indices of basic national wage rates on normal
weekly hours(1)
Percentage increases on previous year
	All industries and services			Manufacturing industries
Year	Weekly rates	Hourly rates(3)	Weekly hours	Weekly rates	Hourly rates(3)	Weekly hours
1963	3.6	3.7	-0.1	3.0	3.0	n/c
1964	4.7	5.2	-0.4	4.7	5.1	-0.3
1965	4.3	6.3	-1.8	3.8	6.1	-2.0
1966	4.6	6.7	-1.9	4.7	6.4	-1.7
1967	3.8	4.0	-0.2	3.9	4.4	-0.4
1968	6.7	6.8	-0.2	7.5	7.8	-0.3
1969	5.2	5.4	-0.1	5.5	5.7	-0.1
1970	10.0	10.3	-0.2	10.0	10.1	-0.1
1971	12.9	13.2	-0.3	12.5	12.5	NIL
1972	13.8	14.1	-0.1	13.7	13.7	NIL
1973	13.7	13.9	-0.3	12.9	12.9	NIL
1974	19.8	20.0	-0.1	17.2	17.2	NIL
1975	29.5	29.6	-0.1	29.9	29.9	NIL
1976	19.3	19.3	NIL	19.8	19.8	NIL
1977	6.6	6.6	NIL	4.7	4.7	NIL
1978	14.1	14.1	NIL	18.2	18.3	NIL
1979	15.0	15.1	-0.1	15.0	14.9	-0.1
1980	18.0	18.1	-0.1	17.1	17.2	NIL
1981	10.2	10.5	-0.2	9.5	9.8	-0.3
1982	6.9	7.9	-0.9	5.9	7.1	-1.1
1983(2)	5.7	6.2	-0.4	5.1	5.7	-0.5

Notes:(1) Based on a representative selection of basic wage rates or minimum entitlements of manual employees arising from centrally determined agreements, usually national collective agreements or statutory wages orders.(2) Compilation of these indices ceased at the end of 1983.(3) Weekly rates adjusted for changes, in normal weekly hours.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What, on an annual basis from 1963 to the latest available year, has been the percentage of full-time adults reported affected by various types of collective agreement:

The available information for full-time adults relates to 1973 and 1978 and is published in Table 111 of New Earnings Survey, 1973 and Table 204 of New Earnings Survey, 1978. Some information for all employees was published in Tables 153 and 155 of New Earnings Survey, 1970. Copies of these reports are available in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will continue to oppose the lifting of the European Community's ban on sale of arms to Israel until such time as all Israeli forces have been withdrawn form the Lebanon, as demanded by UN Security Council Resolution 425; and whether the sale of arms to Israel by the United States is consistent with that resolution.

Defence sales policy is determined by individual Governments. On 30th June 1982 we announced that approval of licences for the export to Israel of British military equipment would be withheld until further notice. We took this action in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and will review our policy on withdrawal of Israeli forces. United States arms sales are a matter for the United States Government.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many apprentices there were in British industry in 1960, 1970, 1980 and the latest date for which figures are available; and if these figures show a decline how they account for this and how they propose to encourage employers and employees to improve the situation.

This information is not available in the precise form requested. For the manufacturing industries the most recent estimate of people employed as apprentices is 82,000 at March 1984. The earliest comparable figure available is 124,000 at March 1982.The numbers entering traditional apprenticeships will become increasingly irrelevant as a measure of the real level of skills training being undertaken by industry because of the reform of existing training arrangements; the substantial provision of initial skills training now taking place under the youth training scheme; and above all, the extension of the scheme to provide two-year places. The addition of a second year's training under the scheme from 1986 will give a very large number of young people an opportunity to gain valuable occupational training, with a recognised qualification at the end, and will be a major step towards providing industry with the skills it needs.The Government are also positively encouraging training in a number of other ways. We have launched a national campaign to raise awareness of the importance of adult training. One of the key messages to employers is that investing in training is as essential as in plant and equipment. We are encouraging employers to reform their own training arrangements to make this investment more cost-effective. As part of the restructuring of its own adult training programmes, the Manpower Services Commission will give particular emphasis to initiatives which encourage greater attention by employers to adult training needs. For example, the commission has introduced a scheme of local grants to encourage employers' own training efforts. The Manpower Services Commission and the education departments are also offering financial help to assist employers to collaborate with training providers to define their needs and explore possible ways of meeting them.