asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, having regard to the consensus document of September last on nuclear proliferation, they are planning to resume trilateral negotiations and when will these take place.

I would refer the noble Lord to the speech I made in reply to the Unstarred Question tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, on 22nd October. Among other things I made clear that it would be premature for substantive negotiations on a comprehensive test ban to be resumed while the outstanding technical problems remain unresolved.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many representations they have received since January of this year calling on them to halt nuclear weapon testing and/or to resume trilateral negotiations with the American and Soviet Governments on a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.

We have received approximately 150 letters on these subjects. In addition, six groups of members of the public have met officials to discuss these subjects.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list those countries which signed the 30 per cent. protocol on reducing sulphur emissions, at the third session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long Range Transport of Air Pollutants in Helsinki this year.

The countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Byelorussian SSR, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary, Italy, Leichtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukrainian SSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many separate telephones are currently in use.

The supply of telephones is no longer a BT monopoly. The precise number currently in use is not known but it will be considerably higher than the number of exchange lines. British Telecommunications' network includes some 20·5 million exchange lines. The Hull Telephone Undertaking network has some 130,000 lines.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state their views on information technology standards with special reference to Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and Systems Network Architecture (SNA).

The Focus Committee chaired by Mr. John Butcher, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, identified Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) as a high priority for standardisation in the field of information technology. OSI allows interworking between equipment from different suppliers and hence encourages competition and open markets.The department's IT Standards Unit is active in encouraging the take-up of OSI both by uses and suppliers. The Government are also fully supporting the European Community's programme to develop functional standards based on internationally agreed OSI standards. OSI standards are being increasingly specified in public procurement following the Statement of Intent published last year by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency.Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is the proprietary architecture of International Business Machines (IBM) which supports the interworking of IBM products. Her Majesty's Government's policy is to encourage the placing of proprietary architectures, such as SNA, in the public domain and their migration towards full conformance with OSI as rapidly as possible.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many motor cars are licensed in the current year, other than lorries and vans.

As at 30th September 1985 there were an estimated 16·9 million licensed cars in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are able to make a further statement about their actions following the judgment on 12th November on the ownership of TSB Scotland.

Yes. This morning the Treasury lodged formal notice of appeal to the Inner House as foreshadowed in the Statement made on 13th November (col. 284).