Oral Answers to Questions — Ministry of Information. – in the House of Commons at on 18 October 1939.
Mr Ellis Smith
, Stoke-on-Trent Stoke
asked the Minister of Supply whether he is now in a position to make a detailed statement on the priority machinery, and how it functions; and will he make available copies of the statement for Members and industrial concerns who desire copies?
Mr Edward Burgin
, Luton
The answer to the first part of the hon. Member's question is of some length, and I am therefore circulating it in the OFFICIAL REPORT; the answer to the second part is that it will be available there for reference by hon. Members and such other persons who wish to read it.
These committees are expected to be the main machinery for reaching decisions in regard to all matters of Priority, and they are formed of representatives of all Departments who may be interested in questions of Priority, whether of labour, materials or production capacity. They are under the chairmanship as regards the Labour Committee of the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, as regards Materials and Production Capacity the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Supply, as regards Transport the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, and as regards Works and Building, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Labour.
The representatives of Departments naturally look after the interests of their Departments, but there are representatives of Civil Departments who, in addition to their own interests, have a particular regard for the interests of civil industry. Thus the Board of Trade looks after the interests of the export trade, industry working on civil orders, shipbuilding, etc., the Mines Department looks after coal mines, quarries, petrol undertakings, etc., the Ministry of Transport looks after the interests of railways, docks and electricity undertakings; and there are other Civil Departments similarly taking care of the interests of other civil undertakings.
This Priority Organisation has a General Secretariat in the Ministry of Supply, known as the Central Priority Department, and it is the duty of that Department to secure the submission by departmental representatives of any matters which they desire to be considered by the Priority Committees, to take note of the decisions made by the Priority Committees and to notify all decisions that are made through the whole of the machinery of departments interested. In addition to these Secretarial functions the Central Priority Department carries on the function previously undertaken by the Supply Board and the Supply Committees of co-ordination of demands for production capacity and allocation of capacity to specific departments: this allocation work has as one of its objects the avoidance of wasteful changes of programmes of production in individual factories and is performed by six allocation sections.
In addition to allocating productive capacity in this way, it is the general practice to endeavour to reach an agreement as between Departments concerned as to the allocation of materials, and where allocations can be made by agreement, there is, of course, no need for the use of actual Priority Certificates. So far it has not been necessary to use Priority Certificates, though in all probability they will be necessary at a very early date. In the meantime Priority Committees have agreed upon certain Orders of Preference in the execution of orders, whether for Government Departments or for interests which are essential to the welfare of the community. If and when Priority Certificates are authorised they will be issued by the Priority Organisations in Departments, including cases where it is necessary to issue Certificates to Sub-Contractors in extension of the main Priority Certificate.
For this and other purposes, working in conjunction with the Priority Organisation set out above, there are Principal Priority Officers in Departments whose duty it is to put forward questions relating to Priority from their Departments to the Priority Sub-Committees, to receive the decisions of the Priority Sub-Committees and to notify through their own departmental Officers the decisions which have been reached. These Priority Organisations have been set up in the following Departments:
The Ministry of Supply, in addition to having the Central Priority Department, has also within it the Raw Materials Departments, controlling the supply and use of raw materials, and it' is the duty of that Department to collate information of demands for supply of materials, working in conjunction with the Central Priority Department, who, as stated above, perform the similar function in regard to productive capacity. The Raw Materials Department assists in fixing the Orders of Preference in the use of materials by competing interests, and where definite shortage of materials can be foreseen, the Department makes arrangements to meet those shortages in adequate time.
As stated, it is the intention that the Priority Sub-Committees shall reach decisions as to priority in all ordinary cases, and only in the event of major disagreement between representatives would reference ordinarily be made to the Ministerial Priority Committee, but in addition to acting as a tribunal for the settlement of any such differences it is at all times within the competence of the Ministerial Priority Committee to fix a general priority for a programme of importance, or to fix, if it wishes, a priority which is to be accorded to work of a particular type. So far there has been no need for the Ministerial Priority Committee to operate in any one of these directions.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The House of Commons is one of the houses of parliament. Here, elected MPs (elected by the "commons", i.e. the people) debate. In modern times, nearly all power resides in this house. In the commons are 650 MPs, as well as a speaker and three deputy speakers.
