Oral Answers to Questions — Public Building and Works – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 February 1964.
Dr Jeremy Bray
, Middlesbrough West
12:00,
18 February 1964
asked the Minister of Public Building and Works what arrangements exist for advising other Departments of the amount of building work which can be undertaken each quarter or each year, in each area or region, without overstraining the resources of the building industry in the area.
Mr Geoffrey Rippon
, Norwich South
My Ministry co-operates closely with other Departments in the formulation of annual and longer-term building programmes.
Closer programming depends upon obtaining more detailed information about local loads on the construction industries. With the industries' agreement, I have started to collect new statistics, which can be analysed by locality. This information will be included for the first time in the quarterly statistics due to be published in May.
Dr Jeremy Bray
, Middlesbrough West
Is the Minister aware that there is still no great confidence in future full employment in the building industry in certain areas of the country either during the winter or in the years ahead? Will the right hon. Gentleman treat this matter with a little greater urgency so as to ensure that areas of high unemployment particularly will get this work?
Mr Geoffrey Rippon
, Norwich South
I am not aware of the position as stated by the hon. Member.
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.
