asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have noted the growth in the size and distinction of scientific support for the "nuclear winter" hypothesis and whether in the light of this they will consider re-examination of their defence and foreign policies.

The Government are aware of the scientific work being undertaken to investigate the climatological consequences of the large scale use of nuclear weapons. Although much scientific work remains to be done on the nuclear winter hypothesis to resolve large uncertainties, that undertaken so far includes a number of reservations about the assumptions, and it is clear that no firm conclusions can yet be drawn. However, enough is already known about the immediate and direct effects of nuclear weapons to ensure that the overriding priority must be to prevent their use, while working unremittingly to achieve deep and equitable reductions in their numbers. These are the objectives of the Government's dual strategy of deterrence and multilateral disarmament.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When it is anticipated that the 1984 report of the Hydrographer of the Navy will be published and what are the reasons for the delay in publication.

The 1984 report of the Hydrographer of the Navy was published on 20th December 1985 and a copy has been placed in the Library. Publication was delayed because of the need to make some late changes to the proofs and as a result the report lost its place in the Hydrographer's programme of printing work to other high priority work such as the annual catalogue of Admiralty charts. Starting with his 1985 report, the Hydrographer proposes to adopt a new, more concise format which should make it possible to publish his report in less time than hitherto.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What proportions of the merchant ships earmarked by Her Majesty's Government for the reinforcement of the Central Front in the event of crisis or war are:—

Present plans envisage that all ships taken up by Her Majesty's Government for reinforcement from the United Kingdom to the Central Front in crisis or war will be British flag.Answers to the other parts of the Question could only be provided at disproportionate cost. It can however be stated that all the ships concerned are under substantial British ownership, all key officer posts are held by British officers, and the crews are predominantly British.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps they have in mind to strengthen the contribution of defence attaches to the work of the Ministry of Defence.

Our Service attachés play a very important part in the work of posts overseas: in representing the British armed forces overseas; in developing the relationships between the armed services of this country and those of the nations to which they are accredited, including, where appropriate, facilitating military co-operation; in assisting defence equipment co-operation and collaboration; and, together with the Head of Defence Export Services and his staff, in assisting defence export effort.We have sought to strengthen our effort in a number of these areas, including military assistance overseas, equipment co-operation and collaboration, and defence sales. In view of the important contribution our Service attaches can make, we believe that it would be helpful if they were able to talk to Ministers, senior military advisers and officials of my department and of the Foreign and Commonwealth office in order to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments.It has therefore been decided, in consultation with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, that the principal Service attachés and advisers now serving abroad should return to this country in the spring in order that as a group they may exchange views and have the opportunity to discuss their roles and responsibilities with the Secretary of State for Defence, ministerial colleagues and our advisers. I believe that this exchange of views will be of considerable mutual value.

asked the Leader of the House:Whether he will list the Private Notice Questions which have been (

Records are not kept of those Private Notice Questions which are not allowed. the following list includes all those Private Notice Questions which have been allowed since the beginning of Session 1980–81. In the case of those Questions marked with an asterisk, comparable Private Notice Questions were asked in the House of Commons on the same day. the practice of repeating the Answers to Commons Private Notice Questions by means of arranged Private Notice Questions in the Lords ceased in November 1983.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many cheese and butter-makers and other employees in milk manufacturing and processing are now (

I regret that the information requested is not available from the department's statistics.