Oral Answers to Questions — Ministry of Information – in the House of Commons at on 17 March 1943.
Mr Bartle Bull
, Enfield
asked the Minister of Information whether, in order to save wastage and postage, he can arrange with the various despatching organisations that copies of the "Soviet War News" and similar daily or regular publications shall be left in the newspaper room or some other convenient place where they can be collected by Members who wish to read them?
Mr Brendan Bracken
, Paddington North
I agree that this is a useful suggestion. I understand that the authorities of the House are prepared to arrange for copies of these publications of our Allies to be placed in the newspaper room for the use of Members who wish to cancel their individual copies.
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.
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.
