§ MR. GULLAND (Dumfries, Burghs)To ask the Secretary for Scotland whether premises in Edinburgh have been taken for the accommodation of the Scottish Education Department; and whether these will in future be the headquarters of the Department.
(Answered by Mr. Sinclair.) Since 1904 an Assistant Secretary of the Department has been stationed in Edinburgh 1060 with great advantage to the work of the Department, as it has enabled many questions out with the sphere of the inspecting staff located throughout Scotland, but yet not important enough to be made the subject of special reference to the Department, to be disposed of by personal interview. The only accommodation available for the use of this officer hitherto has been a room in the Royal Scottish Museum, which has proved to be unsuitable in many ways, both as affording no accommodation for an adequate clerical staff, and as being inconvenient for the reception of deputations. There are also other special officers of the Department stationed in Edinburgh, for example, the Accountant of the Department and the Consulting Architect. It has been thought expedient to bring these various officers together, and to put at the disposal of the Assistant Secretary an adequate staff for dealing with those sections of the Department's work for which he is responsible in the first place. Premises suitable for housing this staff and for the reception of deputations have been found by the Office of Works at 14, Queen Street, and will be in the occupation of the Department from Whitsunday next. They will also be used by the Vice-President and by the Secretary of the Department for the purpose of receiving deputations or for transacting business in other ways as occasion may arise. These premises will admit of further transference of clerical work from London to Edinburgh from time to time as that may be found expedient and possible, but it is not possible even were it desirable, that the whole work of the Department should be transferred to Edinburgh at present; and the headquarters of the Department will, therefore, continue to be in London. The Edinburgh office will be in no sense a separate office but will deal, under the general direction of the Secretary of the Department, with such parts of the work as it may be found most convenient from time to time to entrust to the staff stationed in Edinburgh.