Oral Answers to Questions — Fuel and Power – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 8 April 1948.
Mr Frederick Erroll
, Altrincham and Sale
12:00,
8 April 1948
asked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he will now make a statement on the coal/oil conversion programme.
Mr Hugh Gaitskell
, Leeds South
I have nothing at present to add to the reply given to the hon. Member by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary on Tuesday last during the Adjournment Debate.
Mr Frederick Erroll
, Altrincham and Sale
That merely dealt with fuel oil. Can the right hon. Gentleman make a more comprehensive statement now?
Mr Hugh Gaitskell
, Leeds South
My hon. Friend said that I would make a statement on coal-oil conversion shortly, but two days is not quite long enough.
Mr Frederick Erroll
, Altrincham and Sale
The Question has been down for a long time.
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.
An adjournment debate is a short half hour debate that is introduced by a backbencher at the end of each day's business in the House of Commons.
Adjournment debates are also held in the side chamber of Westminster Hall.
This technical procedure of debating a motion that the House should adjourn gives backbench members the opportunity to discuss issues of concern to them, and to have a minister respond to the points they raise.
The speaker holds a weekly ballot in order to decide which backbench members will get to choose the subject for each daily debate.
Backbenchers normally use this as an opportunity to debate issues related to their constituency.
An all-day adjournment debate is normally held on the final day before each parliamentary recess begins. On these occasions MPs do not have to give advance notice of the subjects which they intend to raise.
The leader of the House replies at the end of the debate to all of the issues raised.
