Part of Access to Personal Files Bill – in the House of Commons at 1:15 pm on 24 April 1987.
Mr Archy Kirkwood
, Roxburgh and Berwickshire
1:15,
24 April 1987
If the Minister of State will allow me to be presumptuous enough to suggest it, I think that he should go back to the Department of the Environment and ask what progress has been made on the consultations that were started some years ago. I make no complaint about the difficulties that the Minister is in, acting as he is as an agent for the Department of Employment, but he will not be privy to the detailed negotiations that have been going on, or that may have been going on. My information is that that process was started some years ago. I should have expected——
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.
