The hot topics of law and order and immigration are guaranteed to raise the temperature in the House of Assembly today.

The debate on this year's Budget kicks off with Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness and Shadow Minister Alex Scott taking the floor.

And an all-out attack by the Progressive Labour Party on Government can be expected as the clock runs down to a General Election.

Mr. Edness and Mr. Scott will start the ball rolling with Government's estimates of expenditure on the Labour and Home Affairs headquarters.

The Ministry nervecentre will spend $229,000 in 1998-99, up $10,000 or 5 percent, $205,000 of it on salaries.

But the Ministry will spend nothing on capital acquisitions, compared to $27,000 last year.

The biggest debate, however, is certain to come when they move on to the Police Service and its $33 million-plus budget, up more than $3 million or 10 percent on 97-98.

The Police Commissioner's office Budget will rocket to $1.2 million from $433,00 -- a percentage increase of 178 -- with staffing increasing from four to eleven.

But the Hamilton Central Division of the force is set to see a loss of ten people -- nine percent of the workforce in the Island's busiest area.

Also to be discussed will be the Labour and Training Department, which got a $740,000 shot in the arm in Finance Minister Grant Gibbon's Budget statement, an increase of more than 100 per cent to $1.47 million.

Two pieces of legislation -- one to axe tax on materials for upgrading hotels for a limited period and another to lower the price of table linens in a bid to boost the retail sector -- will get their second reading, but the debate on both is not expected to last much more than an hour.

POLICE POL