Oral Answers to Questions — Ministry of Aviation – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 June 1964.
Mr Stanley McMaster
, Belfast East
12:00,
3 June 1964
asked the Minister of Aviation what is the average time taken between the formulation of a requirement for a new aircraft and the aircraft coming into service with the Royal Air Force.
Mr Julian Amery
, Preston North
The times taken for typical aircraft now in service have ranged from 4½ years to 10½ years according to the nature of the requirement.
Mr Stanley McMaster
, Belfast East
What is the Government's policy with respect to formulating requirements sufficiently far in advance that aircraft will be in service to meet the transport, and particularly the strategic transport, requirements of our Armed Forces?
Mr Julian Amery
, Preston North
The Staffs try to look as far ahead as they can. Most of our transport requirements are met by adaptations from the civil field The freighting side is rather different, because civil freighting has not developed as far as many people had hoped. As my hon. Friend knows, both the Belfast and the HS 681 are being developed on a purely military basis.
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.
