asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will review the manning of the British Embassies in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius in the light of increasing diplomatic, economic and cultural activities between the United Kingdom and the Baltic States; and when the personnel will be in place in the respective embassies.

We recognise the importance of our strengthening bilateral relations with the Baltic States. We keep staffing at Posts under constant review, taking into account current priorities and available resources. Her Majesty's Government are committed to conducting a central spending review and departmental reviews to assess how to use resources better. We cannot prejudge the outcome.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When the next set of CSA Performance—Statistical information (including figures on the requirement to co-operate) is to be placed in the Library of the House.

The latest report, which contained information for the period January to March 1997, is available in the Library.The next edition, covering April-June 1997, should be available at the end of July.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to Table 9 of the

The information requested is in the tables.The tables include 408,000 claimants whose current benefit entitlement includes an amount for mortgage interest which is deducted at source and paid direct to the lender, at an average amount of £35.77 per week. If these deductions were omitted from the tables, the average number of deductions per claimant would increase from 1.4 to 1.5. This is because the majority of people whose mortgage interest is paid direct to the lender have only this one deduction. With deductions for current mortgage costs excluded, the average weekly amount deducted (all cases) would fall from £16.40 to £8.74, and the number with deductions of more than £15 would fall from 486,000 to 190,000.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the Charity Commission will make available to the members of both Houses of Parliament a full report of the inquiry into the Scarman Trust (formerly the Charter 88 Trust), for consideration in connection with issues of constitutional reform.

The Charity Commission does not normally prepare formal reports of its inquiries, and has not done so in this case.The findings of the commission's inquiry, with which the trustees fully co-operated, were that there was not always a clear distinction between the trust's work and that of other organisations, illustrated by the fact that the report

asked Her Majesty's Government:What measures to control badgers infected with tuberculosis are currently actively being pursued, and whether any such measures which had previously been pursued are currently suspended.

Badgers, other than lactating sows, may be controlled in Great Britain when they are considered to be the likely origin of tuberculosis in a cattle herd. The method used for this purpose is humane shooting, following cage-trapping, by Ministry officials. The use of hydrogen cyanide gas for killing badgers ceased in 1980. Badgers are only removed from land grazed by cattle which reacted to the tuberculin test, or from the whole farm if no smaller area can be identified.The new Government are leaving things as they are for the time being while we study the issue. So badger control is not being started in areas where it has not been undertaken in recent years. Control is continuing elsewhere.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their estimate of annual revenue from the landfill tax after 1997.

The annual revenue from landfill tax after 1997 is estimated at £450 million.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What revenue has accumulated from the landfill tax since its introduction in October 1996.

To 31 May 1997, just under £200 million.

asked Her Majesty's Government:By how much financial projects conducted by approved environment bodies have been assisted so far by the landfill tax scheme and whether this scheme will be continued.

ENTRUST, the scheme's regulator, has been notified by the environmental bodies of receipts of contributions under the scheme totalling some £1.5 million to date. The Government have no plans to discontinue the scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have considered to what uses landfill tax rebates might be put and whether they will make an announcement on this subject.

The categories of "approved objects", contributions to the furtherance of which may qualify for credits of landfill tax, are laid out in Regulation 33 of the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996. The choice of which projects or bodies to support is a matter for those landfill site operators who make contributions. Providing it qualifies, the Government will refund 90 per cent. of any contribution as a landfill tax credit, up to a maximum of 20 per cent. of the contributor's annual landfill tax liability.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, when they appoint Commissioners to the European Commission, they are aware (a) what pensions and/or other benefits accrue to such Commissioners when they retire, (b) whether these benefits are paid direct from the European Communities' budget or from a separate fund set up for the purpose, or otherwise how they are paid, and (c) what enhancement to these benefits, if any, is granted to retiring Presidents of the European Commission; if they are so aware, whether they will reveal such information; and if not, whether they will ask the European Commission to do so.

The arrangements for the remuneration of Commissioners, including their pensions, are laid down in EC Regulations, and are therefore already publicly available in that form. Broadly, and subject to the specific provisions of the regulations, the position is as follows.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they consider it reasonable that, where a limited company remains solvent only by virtue of guarantees given by third parties to its bankers, those bankers should (in the event of the company then going into receivership) have a claim on the assets of the company to satisfy their debt without first deducting from their debt the amount which they could receive by claiming against the guarantors to the limit of the guarantees.

The terms of any contract between a bank and a company which borrows from it and any guarantee entered into by a third party to guarantee that lending are entirely a matter for the respective parties to agree before entering into them. In the event of a default by the borrower, the terms of the contract to lend and guarantee to support that borrowing will determine the rights and obligations of the parties involved.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the developers of Canary Wharf were required by the previous Government to provide £400 million towards the cost of the Jubilee Line Extension before its construction was begun; and, if so, why this requirement was not insisted upon.

The first payment of £100 million by the Canary Wharf developers was made in 1993. The remaining £300 million is to be paid over a 24-year period starting one year after the first day of operation of the Jubilee Line Extension. The JLE funding agreement did not require the Canary Wharf developers to make their contribution before construction started.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many vehicles there are on United Kingdom roads today, what percentage of these are motor cars and how many of these are company cars.

The most recent figures are for the end of 1996, when a total of 26.9 million vehicles were licensed for use in the United Kingdom. Of these vehicles, nearly 85 per cent., or 22.8 million, were motor cars, including an estimated 2.3 million which were company owned.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they expect British Telecom and the cable companies to have fulfilled their promise to "wire up schools, libraries, colleges and hospitals to the information superhighway free of charge" (to quote from the Labour Party manifesto); whether this promise will allow those being connected to choose the data capacity of the link without restraint; and how they intend to judge whether access charges are "as low as possible".

The Government are developing plans to implement a National Grid for Learning. As part of these plans, they are in discussion with BT as to how it may best fulfil its commitment to wire up schools, libraries, colleges and hospitals to the information superhighway. BT has bought forward its first proposals to Oftel, who will be undertaking the necessary consultation as quickly as possible. The cable companies already cable up all schools passed by their networks, free of charge. They also offer schools a competitive flat monthly fee for unlimited Internet access. ISDN or equivalent high-speed 64k connection is available for as little as £1 per pupil per year, and this can be upgraded to cable modem connection—allowing true broadband capacity when the technology becomes available in the next few months. An estimated 17,000 schools will be able to benefit from this service by the turn of the century, when build in current cable franchise areas is complete. A thousand schools have already been cabled.Oftel will continue to work in consultation with the Government and the industry to ensure that access charges remain as low as possible.