Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Town and Country Planning – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 November 1947.
I should like to take this opportunity of saying publicly how grateful the Secretary of State and I are to the members of the Board for accepting appointment and helping us in the task of bringing these new Planning Acts into operation. Especially in the case of the Chairman, Sir Malcolm Eve, it has meant asking him to add to other burdens he already carries. Not only is he chairman of the War Damage Commission, he is also chairman of the Local Government Boundary Commission and heavily engaged at the present time in work connected with it. I am asked by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health to make it clear that Sir Malcolm Eve will remain as chairman of the Boundary Commission until the Commission have completed the report on which they are at present engaged.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
