asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their assessment of the relative contributions of public sector borrowing, bank lending to the personal sector for purposes of financing consumer expenditure, bank lending for housing finance, "round tripping" by the corporate sector, and other factors, respectively, to the growth of sterling M3 in the current financial year to date, and whether it is their intention to take steps to bring the growth of broad money more nearly into line with the target range for the financial year.

In banking months April to September inclusive the counterparts to £M3 growth were as follows:

£ billion, seasonally adjusted
PSBR*	+ 5·1
Net purchases (-) of CG debt by non-bank private sector	- 3·4
External and foreign currency finance or public sector	- 1·2
Banks' sterling lending to private sector	+ 9·7
Other counterparts	- 0·3
Total: Change in £M3	+ 9·8
*The PSBR less net purchases of local authorities' and public corporations' debt by the non-bank private sector.

Sectoral analyses of bank lending are only available quarterly and are on a slightly different basis to the figures given above. In the 12 months to August bank lending to persons for house purchase increased by 20 per cent. (£3·3 billion) and "other" bank lending to persons (not necessarily restricted to financing consumer expenditure) increased by 17 per cent. (£2·8 billion).

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will make a statement on the price of the

Following a review by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, my honourable friend the Minister of State, Treasury, has authorised an increase of 55p in the price of the daily part, with corresponding increases in the prices of weekly parts, indexes, bound volumes and subscription rates. The scale of charges for reprints of Peers' speeches appearing in the Official Report will also be raised. Despite these increases Hansard will still receive a substantial subsidy.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they started to revise the leaflet

This memorandum, and other related documents, have been under revision for the last 18 months. A revised version is now virtually completed and I expect it to be available before the end of the year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they received the Report of the Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester on RUC operations in Armagh in 1982; whether it will be published and if so when, and if not, why not.

This Report was prepared at the request of the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and was submitted to him. The Government have not received a copy. I understand that when the Chief Constable has studied it he will submit it to the Director of Public Prosecutions (Northern Ireland) for his consideration.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they can confirm that the Advisory Board for Research Councils, which makes recommendations to the Secretary of State for Education on the funding of research councils, and whose recommendations affect the funding received by the Agriculture and Food Research Council (AFRC), publishes an annual report, and whether they will take steps to allow the Priorities Board to publish the advice that it gives to agriculture Ministers and the chairman of the AFRC.

I understand that the Advisory Board for the Research Council does not publish an annual report. However, with the approval of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science it does publish the advice that it gives him from time to time on the size and distribution of the science budget and on other general science policy issues. In a Written Answer to the noble Lord on 3rd July (ref. col. 1301), I said that when the Priorities Board's advice on future priorities and resource allocations had been received we would be considering how all those with an interest were to be kept informed. That remains the position.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will confirm that the Joint Consultative Organisation (JCO), which used to give advice to the Agriculture and Food Research Council and Agriculture Ministers about priorities for agricultural research, published an annual report on its activities, and why, if so, when the JCO was replaced by the Priorities Board, the practice of publishing such a report was not continued.

The JCO consultative board did not publish annual reports on its activities but it did make available discussion papers on a number of research topics. The reports of ad hoc JCO committees were made available to interested parties and this practice has been continued with the reports of research consultative committees which have a similar function.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will confirm that advice given on future priorities for agricultural research by the Priorities Board is made available to the Agriculture and Food Research Council as well as agriculture Ministers, and that it therefore does not fall into the same category as advice provided by civil servants to Ministers, as far as the question of confidentiality of such advice is concerned.

Under its terms of reference the Priorities Board advises the United Kingdom agriculture Ministers and the Chairman of the Agricultural and Food Research Council on priorities for research and development in agriculture and food and on the allocation of research and development budgets. It will be for the recipients of that advice to decide jointly how it is to be handled and how all those with an interest are to be kept informed.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware of reports that regulation 3 of the Poultry Meat (Hygiene) Regulations 1976, excepting "farmgate" sales from poultry meat inspection, and regulation 4, permitting certain premises in operation before January 1977 to obtain from their licensing authority a derogation allowing them to dress birds without evisceration and consequently without full meat inspection, are being abused, and what action they propose to take.

The Government are aware of concern about these two provisions and are consulting interested organisations about the problems which have been identified.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they hope to inform those who have appealed to be included in the extension to the Less Favoured Areas whether their application has been successful or not.

The closing date for receipt of representations against exclusion from the less favoured areas was 31st July. By that date we had received over 11,000 representations, each one of which will have to be tested against the land quality, economic and demographic criteria which Less Favoured Areas Directive (EC 75/268) prescribes. The land quality assessment is already under way. It is however still too soon to judge when all appeals will have been fully examined or when we shall be in a position to decide whether to make a further application to the European Commission for adjustments to the LFA line. Only when this has been done will it be possible to inform farmers if their representations have been successful, though the outcome of representations which fail the criteria will of course be known earlier.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether consideration can now be given to enabling the recommendations of the Review Body for Nursing Staff, Midwives, Health Visitors and Professions Allied to Medicine, to be brought in line with the traditional negotiating machinery as applied to other professions and trades and to making awards in one stage.

The Government introduced the Review Body for Nursing Staff, Midwives, Health Visitors and Professions Allied to Medicine in order to create better arrangments for determining the pay of the professions concerned and to recognise the special position of such staff—the vast majority of whom eschew industrial action. The Government have made it clear that they will implement review body reports except where there are clear and compelling reasons not to do so. In the case of this year's review body report, the Government accepted its recommendations, apart from the operative date. That date was adjusted for two clear and compelling reasons: first, the need to hold National Health Service expenditure within planned budgets; and, second, the effect on services to patients of devoting more of the resources available to pay. Similar considerations would apply whatever the machinery for determining pay.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will provide a breakdown of the estimated cost-savings arising from the proposed phasing out of the state earnings-related pension scheme in each year from 1987 to 2000.

The proposals in the Green Paper Reform of Social Security for phasing-out the state earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS) would have no effect on the pension entitlements of people retiring up to 2002. Savings on retirement pensions would not arise until after that date. It would not be possible to estimate any small savings which might arise in other ways until the proposals have been finalised.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When legislation will become effective which will allow unemployment benefit to be paid to persons accepting voluntary redundancy; and what instructions or guidance they have given to employment offices on this matter.

Section 20 of the Social Security Act 1975 was amended by Section 10 of the Social Security Act 1985 with effect from 22nd July 1985 to establish that workers made redundant are not regarded as having left their employment voluntarily. The Department of Employment issued urgent instructions to their local offices on 26th June on identifying and listing of these cases, and more detailed instructions on how to deal with them on 23rd July. Workers who lost benefit because of voluntary redundancy before the amendment came into effect have received, or are receiving, extra-statutory payments.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the answer given by the Baroness Trumpington on 23 rd October, whether they can confirm that every blood transfusion of any kind is made with blood which has been tested for AIDS virus.

All Factor VIII and Factor IX now prescribed is heat-treated, to reduce the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus. Whole blood has a shelf-life of only four weeks or so; nearly all pre-October 14th stocks of blood used for transfusions have already been tested for HTLV III antibody. We have advised regional transfusion directors to test any remaining stock wherever this is practicable.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made with combined heat and power projects for some cities in the United Kingdom.

Agreements between Belfast, Edinburgh and Leicester consortia and my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Energy for grant aid towards the preparation of prospectuses have been signed and the consortia's work programmes are under way. It is expected that these programmes will be concluded over the next twelve months.The Sheffield consortium has completed a feasibility study and has applied to the European Commission for financial assistance towards the first stage of the design and procurement of its scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When a decision on the United Kingdom's future role with our European partners in the fast reactor programme is likely to be made.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Energy announced in another place on 16th January 1984 (Official Report, cols. 47–48) that the United Kingdom had joined a European collaboration for the joint development of fast reactors, through signature of an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding with France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy and Belgium.The Government's general policies on the United Kingdom's participation in the European fast reactor collaboration were subsequently set out in May 1985 in a letter from the Secretary of State for Energy to the chairman of the UKAEA in the context of a proposal from the UKAEA and BNFL to build a fast reactor demonstration reprocessing plant in the United Kingdom. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of

State for Energy reported in another place on 24th May (