HC Deb 14 November 1966 vol 736 c4
2. Mr. Marten

asked the Minister of Land and Natural Resources what is the purpose and estimated cost of the Committee of Inquiry into Allotments.

9. Mr. Peyton

asked the Minister of Land and Natural Resources when he expects to receive the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Allotments.

10. Mr. Arnold Shaw

asked the Minister of Land and Natural Resources whether he will now make a statement on the future of allotment land.

Mr. Willey

The Committee's task is to review general policy on allotments in the light of present-day conditions in England and Wales. The estimated cost is £25,000. The Committee's report is expected in about 18 months' time, and until this is to hand it would be premature to make a statement about future allotments policy.

Mr. Marten

Can the Minister confirm that 29,000 of these forms and questionnaires went out, that each one contains about 300 questions, and that therefore the answers will amount to over 8½ million? What on earth will happen to them all? Could this not have been done by the well-known and well tried method of a sample? Will the Minister use a computer to get the answer?

Mr. Willey

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's original assumptions, which are wrong. But I can assure him that we intend to use a computer for this, and that partly explains why the questionnaire takes that particular form.

Mr. Peyton

What is the point of this great-grand daddy of all forms? Is it to compile another Domesday Book? Does the Minister realise that the clerks of many parish councils, certainly in Somerset, consider that the forms constitute a monstrous mountain of bureaucratic nonsense which has no justification?

Mr. Willey

There is a Question later about the forms, but the hon. Gentleman will be delighted to know that we have received about 4,000 replies.