§ Mr. Wilkinsonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether tie will establish a civilian helicopter air/sea rescue service at Chivenor, North Devon, after the closing of the airfield as a Royal Air Force flying station in 1972–73.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantI shall consider this in the light of our experience of the experimental civilian helicopter service at Manston and alternative air/sea rescue
358Wtions as part of their general work: most Departments also have staff in Parliamentary sections who are engaged in processing answers.
In 1965 the average costs of answering Oral and Written Questions were estimated at£10.55 and£7.82 respectively. The approximate average costs today are£14 for an Oral and£10 for a Written Question. It would however involve disproportionate expenditure to calculate detailed costs.
From the opening of this Parliament up to 7th May, 9,672 Questions had been tabled for Oral Answer—of which 3,911 were actually answered orally—and 14,100 tabled for written reply were answered. The rough total cost may be calculated accordingly.