asked Her Majesty's Government:What percentage of the electorate and of those who voted in the last election for the City of Liverpool Council cast their votes for Labour candidates; and on what grounds they continue to be satisfied with an electoral system that gives such power to an unrepresentative minority.

Information of this kind is not collected by central government. However, we understand that Labour Party candidates attracted the support of 23 per cent. of the electorate, or 46.2 per cent. of those who voted, at the last elections to Liverpool City Council in 1984.Since proportional representation is more likely to provide small unrepresentative minorities with seats on local authorities and to create coalitions where such groups can hold disproportionate power, the Government propose to retain the simple majority system of voting for local elections. The electorate of Liverpool will have a fresh opportunity to express these views at next year's elections for one-third of the city council.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will reconstitute the governing body of the BBC and create a new Board of Governors to assert the independence of the BBC and restore morale within the corporation.

No.

asked Her Majesty's Goverment:Whether they will confirm that Home Office practice is to defer removal or deportation while an application for judicial review remains outstanding, but that where such an application has been the subject of a table rejection, they will regard themselves as free to proceed with the removal or deportation, even if the applicant could not have received the rejection, and even if time has still to elapse in which the applicant is entitled to renew his application in open court.

I have nothing to add to the reply given by my noble friend Lord Elton to a Question by the noble Lord on 5th February [Official Report, 5/2/85; col. 1054].

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the cash provisions for counselling and advising people found to be AIDS virus carriers can be increased as requested by doctors.

It is the responsibility of health authorities to determine what counselling and advisory facilities they need to make available to those carrying the AIDS infection. Provision for expenditure on counselling in three of the Thames regions and in haemophilia reference centres was included in the additional sum of approaching £1 million for AIDS services announced recently by my right honourable friend the Minister for Health.

asked her Majesty's Government:Whether they will reconsider the decision to close Guy's Hospital Nurses' Home in Earls Court, London, and whether they will explain the reasons for the proposed closure.

As the Government are not involved in this decision the noble Lord may wish to approach Mr. P. W. Barker, the chairman of Lewisham and North Southwark Health Authority, which manages nurses' homes serving Guy's Hospital.

asked her Majesty's Government:What has been the response to the request by COHSE for an inquiry, following the discovery of legionnaire's disease bacteria in the shower unit of the Oakwood Psychiatric Wing of Maidstone District Hospital in Kent.

I presume that the request was made to the chairman of Maidstone Health Authority, which manages the psychiatric wing of Maidstone Hospital. The noble Lord may wish to seek information from the chairman, Mrs. A. S. Nelson, about her response to the request.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the number of single people and homeless families in bed and breakfast accommodation at the last convenient date; and what is the current cost to the Government and to local authorities compared with the same date in the previous year.

Three thousand eight hundred and fifty households were in bed and breakfast accommodation at 30th June 1985, compared with 3,020 at 30th June 1984, having been placed there by local authorities under the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. According to information published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, net expenditure by authorities on maintaining households in bed and breakfast accommodation in 1984–85 was £10·3 million or £13·3 per household per day, compared with £8·8 million or £12·4 in 1983–84. Information is not available on the size and characteristics of these households or the extent to which they were in receipt of supplementary benefit payments, and hence on the cost to the Government.