asked the Minister of Health in how many hospital groups where 70 per cent. or more of the maintenance budget is concerned with building work there is no building supervisor, qualified in building, in charge.

I regret that this information is not available.

Should not the information be available? Is it not the situation that there are far too few qualified building supervisors in the hospital ser- vice for them to be able to deal with all the major and minor work which goes on? Will the hon. Gentleman give careful consideration to the pay and promotion prospects of employees of this type to see what he can do to recruit more people?

It is impossible to identify the hospital groups which spend 70 per cent. or more of their maintenance budgets on building work. The number of building supervisors, in whole-time equivalents, was 218 on 30th September, 1962, and the corresponding figure in 1958 was 177. We do not know of any general recruitment difficulties. The question of salaries is, of course, another matter.