asked Her Majesty's Government:When they will publish the aggregate results of cost-benefit appraisals of land drainage and flood protection schemes.

I have today placed in the Library of the House a paper summarising the revised cost-benefit procedures for land drainage and flood protection schemes. This is for the use of all drainage authorities seeking grant aid in England and Wales from my department or from the Secretary of State for Wales. The paper sets out the form in which we intend to issue the aggregate results of cost-benefit appraisals for individual land drainage and flood protection schemes to interested parties, and fulfils the undertaking given in paragraph 2.11 of the consultation paper on the Financing and Administration of Land Drainage, Flood Protection and Coast Protection issued earlier this year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What arrangements are proposed for the dumping of nuclear waste if and when a reprocessing plant is opened at Dounreay.

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy in reply to the honourable member for Caithness and Sutherland on 24th May 1985 (vol. 79, col. 586) drew attention to a letter from my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Energy to the Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) setting out the Government's general policies on the UK's participation in the European fast reactor collaboration and on the regulatory procedures which would apply to any demonstration reprocessing plant which might be built in the UK. Copies are available in the House Library.This makes clear that regulatory responsibility for the disposal of radioactive waste from any such reprocessing plant built at Dounreay would rest with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, and any such disposal would be subject to authorisations granted under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.The UKAEA and British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) have set out proposals for waste managment in the supplementary information to their planning application, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the minimum number of existing power stations required to produce 75 per cent. of the total electrical power generation capacity of the United Kingdom, and whether they will list those power stations together with their rated output, in descending order of output.

Commissioned power stations operated by the electricity utilities, BNFL and UKAEA, but excluding pumped storage and reserve plant, had a total generating capacity of 60·5 gigawatts sent out as at 31st October 1984. Following are the 36 stations with the largest declared net capability which together account for 75 per cent. (45·4 GW) of the capacity:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Pursuant to the Answer given by the Lord Elton on 5th December 1984 (

We have not yet completed the review of firearms fees. Any change of the fee for a shotgun certificate resulting from the review will require an order which is subject to negative resolution.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether adequate staff and resources have been allocated to the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights (in Northern Ireland) to enable it to complete its review of discrimination and inequality and their remedies by the target date of January 1987.

The chairman of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights has put forward proposals for this review. They have considerable resource implications, which are being urgently examined. The Northern Ireland Office is meanwhile discussing with the commission the implementation of the recommendations of a recent review of the commission's staffing levels, which suggested that there should be some additional staff.