Oral Answers to Questions — Government Departments. – in the House of Commons at on 5 December 1939.
Major-General Sir Alfred Knox
, Wycombe
asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is now in a position to give a list of the appointments with a salary of £1,000 a year and over that have been made by various Ministries from the declaration of war till the end of October of persons not already serving in the Civil Service?
Captain Harry Crookshank
, Gainsborough
I am circulating the list in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
| Department. | Appointment. | Salary. | |
| Administrative. | £ | ||
| Ministry of Food | 2 | Assistant Secretaries | 1,000 |
| Trade. | |||
| 2 | Directors | 1,500 | |
| 1 | Director | 1,300 | |
| 13 | Directors and Deputy Directors | 1,200 | |
| 1 | Deputy Director | 1,100 | |
| 30 | Directors, Assistant Directors, Supervisors, etc. | 1,000 | |
| Finance. | |||
| 1 | Director | 1,250 | |
| 2 | Directors | 1,200 | |
| 3 | Directors, Deputy Directors, etc. | 1,000 | |
| Divisional Organisation. | |||
| 17 | Divisional Food Officers | 1,000 | |
| Hospital Emergency Service. | |||
| Ministry of Health | 11 | Consultant Advisers | 1,400 |
| 1 | Assistant Consultant Adviser | 1,200 | |
| 1 | Medical Superintendent | 1,200 | |
| 19 | Group Officers | 1,300 | |
| 1 | Deputy Group Officer | 1,000 | |
| Hospital Emergency Service. | |||
| Department of Health for Scotland. | 3 | Surgical Directors | 1,300 |
| 1 | Visiting Physician and General Director Medical Organisation for Western Scotland | 1,300 | |
| Ministry of Information | 1 | Assistant Director General | 1,250 (provisional) |
| 5 | Heads of Divisions | 1,250 | |
| 1 | Head of Section | 1,200 | |
| 17 | Deputy and Assistant Heads of Divisions and Heads of Sections. | 1,000 | |
| Ministry of Supply | 1 | Superintendent, Air Defence Experimental Establishment. | 1,050 to 1,250 |
| 1 | Director of Statistics | 1,500 | |
| 1 | Director of Transportation Equipment | 1,500 | |
| 2 | Assistant Directors of Ordnance Factories | 1,200 | |
| 1 | Assistant Director of Contracts | 1,000 | |
| 1 | Assistant to the Director General of Finance | 1,000 | |
| Raw Material Controls | |||
| 40 | Controllers, etc. | From 1,000 to 1,500 (range)† | |
| Treasury | 1 | Temporary Administrative Officer | 1,000 |
| War Office | 1 | Director General of Transportation and Movements. | 2,000 |
| 1 | Chief Postal Censor | Not yet fixed. | |
| * Some of these officers have declined a salary; others have not accepted the full salary. | |||
| † Some of these officers have declined a salary. | |||
| The above list does not include Naval, Military or Air Force Officers employed on special duties by the Defence Departments etc., with the pay and allowances of their rank. | |||
Mr. Creech Jones:
asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been drawn to the introduction by highly placed officials of their relatives, including wives and daughters, to posts in Government Departments in which they serve; is he aware that in some cases such relatives have no clerical qualifications or previous office experience to entitle them to consideration for such posts; and whether, in view of the unem- ployment among clerical workers, he will inform Departments that these appointments are irregular and contrary to the public interest and should be reviewed and that a proper procedure should be followed for filling temporary and other posts?
Captain Harry Crookshank
, Gainsborough
The hon. Member may rest assured that the normal procedure is that temporary vacancies in Government Departments should be filled through the machinery of the Ministry of Labour. I am aware that in a limited number of cases relatives of members of the staff of a Government Department were appointed to temporary posts in the same Department. Apart from a few cases in which exceptional circumstances existed, such appointments were for the most part made as a matter of urgency in the early days of the war when it was difficult invariably to take advantage of the normal supply arrangements. I do not agree, however, that the persons so appointed were without qualifications. The number of appointments of relatives is very small in relation to the considerable expansion of Government Departments that has taken place; they are being examined with a view to the substitution in appropriate cases of officers recruited in the normal way.
Mr. Creech Jones:
In view of the importance of maintaining public confidence in these appointments, will the Minister issue instructions to all Departments that these appointments must in future be made in accordance with the regulations laid down by the Treasury?
Captain Harry Crookshank
, Gainsborough
I think if the hon. Gentleman studies the reply which I have given, he will find full satisfaction in it.
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.
