asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the results of the study commissioned in respect of electors' views on voting systems will be made available. [HL898]

My right honourable friend has arranged for a copy of the results to be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether consideration has now been given to the appeals of two Scots Guardsmen, Fisher and Wright, and whether it is now intended to release them; and whether they will give reasons for their detention. [HL687]

The current appeals by Guardsmen Fisher and Wright take the form of a judicial review of the Secretary of State's decision of 27 October 1997 that the cases of the Guardsmen should be referred back to the Life Sentence Review Board in October 1998. Leave was granted for the judicial review on Monday 26 January. No date has yet been set for the hearing.There are currently no plans to release Fisher and Wright. As to reasons for their detention I would refer the noble Lord to the Answer given by my honourable friend, Adam Ingram, the Minister responsible for life sentence prisoners in Northern Ireland, in another place, in reply to a Question from my honourable friend the Member for Linlithgow on 12 January 1998 (

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are their policies to support deer farming in Scotland. [HL761]

The Government recognise that any support for deer farming in Scotland must be within the framework of existing UK and EC legislation. The industry is being encouraged to pursue possible grant assistance through the Marketing Development Scheme to assist in the marketing of venison as a healthy alternative to other meats. Financial assistance has also recently been provided to support the newly opened Deer Farming Training Centre at Barony College, near Dumfries, the first such centre to be opened in the UK.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What policy they have adopted to protect members of the Armed Forces who might become involved in any new conflict with Iraq from the dangers of exposure to biological or chemical agents. [HL576]

The measures being taken at any given time to protect UK forces against chemical and biological weapons are based upon the prevailing operational circumstances and the latest threat assessment. In the light of Iraq's failure to account properly for its acknowledged programmes to acquire weapons of mass destruction, a range of equipment—chemical and biological agent detectors, warning and reporting systems, individual and collective protection, decontamination equipment, and medical countermeasures—has already been sent to the Gulf theatre for use by UK forces if necessary.In order that MoD has access to the best possible medical and scientific advice, we have established an independent Advisory Group on Medical Countermeasures, chaired by Professor Peter Blain of Newcastle University and made up of leading outside medical experts. Having sought and received advice from the new group on the current situation, we have decided that UK service personnel and MoD civilians in the Gulf region should be strongly recommended to accept immunisation against anthrax. The vaccination programme will commence later this week and involve personnel receiving three injections over the next six weeks and a fourth injection after a further six months, using the UK manufactured and licensed anthrax vaccine. No other vaccine will be co-administered with the anthrax vaccine and special arrangements have been made to ensure that the medical records of all those involved are properly annotated to register whether they receive the vaccine.The US and Canadian Governments are providing vaccination for their forces in the region in the same timescale, and are making similar announcements.My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence has written to those Service personnel and civilians who are being advised to accept anthrax immunisation explaining the background to this decision. A copy of the text of his letter and the accompanying information leaflet are being placed in the Library of the House.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they expect to subject to peer review the conclusions of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee relating to the advice to Ministers on bone-in beef; and [HL693]When they expect to publish the data on which the conclusions and advice of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee to Ministers on bone-in beef were based. [HL694]

The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee decided their advice to Ministers in the light of further findings of a continuing experiment to examine the spread of infectivity and the occurrence of pathological changes in cattle exposed orally to infection with bovine spongiform encephalopathy and of an independently conducted risk assessment. The experimental results were subject to peer review and preliminary observations were published in the Veterinary Record on 31 January 1998 (G.A.H. Wells et al, p103–106). Final observations await completion of the experiment. The risk assessment was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on behalf of the committee and was published by the technical consultancy company which did the work, Det Norske Veritas Limited. A copy of their report is available on the Internet at http://www.dnv.com.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the terms of reference for the Phillips Inquiry on BSE include a requirement that current and former officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food shall be called to give evidence to the inquiry. [HL787]

No. The inquiry has no statutory powers to require people to help or to attend. However, my right honourable friend the Minister has called for all concerned to co-operate fully with the inquiry and has confirmed that serving and retired officials would be expected to do so.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In the event that officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are not required to give evidence to the Phillips Inquiry on BSE but wish to do so on a voluntary basis, what is the procedure they should follow. [HL788]

The Permanent Secretary has already informed all members of the department that they should feel entirely free to make representations direct to the inquiry. He has also publicised the inquiry's address and telephone number.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware of the findings about the toxicity of ivermectin to marine life reported in

The Government are aware of this report, although our understanding is that it has yet to be formally published. However, there is currently no veterinary medicinal product authorised for use in the marine environment which contains ivermectin. If any application for authorisation of such a veterinary medicinal product were submitted, then this report would be considered along with all of the other data relevant to that application.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What factors are taken into account and what mathematical formula is currently used to calculate the allocation of resources to health authorities for hospital and community health services; how many times and in what way this formula has changed from that originally recommended by the Resource Allocation Working Party (RAWP); and whether further change in the formula is contemplated to take into account evidence that uptake of some services by relatively deprived groups does not fully reflect their increased morbidity. [HL727]

I have written to the noble Lord today on this issue.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the speed limit on the six-lane A.40 has been cut to 40 mph from Greenford to Park Royal. [HL775]

I have asked the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency to write to the noble Lord.

asked Her Majesty's Government:On what date they anticipate all claims to be settled by the French Government in respect of payments promised to British transport companies who were caught up in the French transport strike; and whether they expect interest on outstanding debts to be recovered. [HL847]

We know that the French authorities are now working to expedite the consideration of claims and to decide them as quickly as possible. Our officials are continuing to work closely with the authorities to ensure that valid claims are dealt with fairly and within the framework of French law, which we understand does not provide for the payment of interest.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans to implement the recommendation of the Law Commission made in its report dated 4 November 1992 to modify the strict time limits set out in Section 29 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 in order to save unnecessary expenditure of time of both lawyers and the courts, as well as costs. [HL765]

The Government are looking closely at the recommendations in this report, many of which are obviously sensible. We will announce our conclusions in due course. Implementation would require primary legislation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will ask local authorities in England and Wales to keep records of gypsy families moving into, and out of, council housing. [HL730]

We have no plans to do so. Gypsy families have exactly the same rights of access to council housing as anyone else, and we see no need to ask local authorities to keep such records.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many United Kingdom households have two or more homes. [HL776]

The information available is for households living in Great Britain, an estimated 250,000 of whom owned or rented a second home in Great Britain in 1996–97. This figure excludes second homes owned or rented in Great Britain by people living abroad or in Northern Ireland. The information is from the Survey of English Housing and the ONS Omnibus Survey.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many United Kingdom households have homes with three or more bedrooms; and [HL777]How many United Kingdom households with two or more children live in homes with fewer than three bedrooms. [HL778]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will review the impending abolition of duty free shopping by travellers between Member States of the European Union as previously agreed by their finance Ministers. [HL714]

The decision to end duty-free shopping within the European Union on 30 June 1999 was taken by the Council of Finance Ministers in 1991. Any review of that decision has to be for the Council as a whole. The Government have previously said that they will not stand in the way of any proposal for a Commission study into the impact of abolition, particularly if this were also to examine the nature of any successor regime to duty free.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In view of the latest figures published by the Treasury on 12 February on the compensation paid to the 600,000 people who were mis-sold personal pensions and the warning by the Economic Secretary that in some cases they still leave much to be desired, what further progress has been made in this matter. [HL670]

The Government's objective is to see that all those investors who were mis-sold a personal pension receive prompt redress. To this end, the Government have since June 1997 collected and published each month figures from the firms with most cases to review, showing the progress each has made. The latest figures, covering the period to the end of January 1998, were published on 12 February. These show that progress continues to be made, with 60 per cent. of their cases requiring review resolved. Most of the firms concerned have now resolved over half the cases identified for priority review.However, there is no room for complacency, many cases remain unresolved, and we fully support the regulators in their ongoing efforts to ensure that all firms deal with their caseloads quickly and fairly.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the services of an architect or surveyor are excluded from VAT zero rating in Schedule 8, Group 6 (Protected Buildings), Item 2 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. [HL734]

Only services performed in the course of the construction of a building are zero-rated. The services of architects and surveyors are not regarded as being directly connected to the actual construction of a building and are therefore excluded from zero-rating.