§ Major ANSTRUTHER-GRAYasked the Lord Advocate whether the Scottish Office is responsible for the five months' delay in forwarding the application from Anstruther, St. Andrew's, and Pittenweem for a grant from the Commissioners of the Development Fund; and if he will do his best to expedite the matter?
§ Major ANSTRUTHER-GRAYasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that a delay of five months has occurred in the forwarding of the applications of Anstruther, St. Andrew's, and Pittenweem to the Commissioners for a grant from the Development Fund for their harbours, which applications were received by the Treasury last November and sent by that Department to the Board of Trade; and whether, seeing that the claims of Findochty and Lossiemouth, and other harbours in Scotland, have been or are being already dealt with by the Commissioners on the spot, he will endeavour to secure for Fife harbours equally fair and expeditious treatment to those of other places?
§ Major ANSTRUTHER-GRAYasked the President of the Board of Trade whether the delay of five months in forwarding the applications from Anstruther, St. Andrew's, and Pittenweem has been caused by the necessity of communicating with the Scottish Office; whether he can now say when these applications are to be forwarded for consideration; and whether he will do his best to expedite the matter?
§ The LORD ADVOCATEIn answering the question addressed to me, I may, perhaps, be allowed to answer at the same time the other two questions of the hon. and gallant Member on the same subject, addressed to the Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade. I should explain that the procedure under the Development Act necessitates the consultation by the Treasury of the Department interested before applications are disposed of by the Development Commissioners. In the case of applications on behalf of Scottish fishery harbours it was decided, after consultation between the Scottish Office and the Board of Trade, to which the applications had been referred by the Treasury, that, when sufficient time had elapsed to indicate the probable number and scope of early applications, it would be expedient that inquiry should primarily be made through the Scottish Fishery Board, which has large experience 1785 in such matters. In pursuance of this arrangement the Fishery Board has recently made local inquiry into the applications from the Moray Firth; and similar inquiry will be made into the applications in which the hon. and gallant Member is interested. There has been no preferential treatment for any locality; but with applications coming from numerous quarters it is obvious that inquiries cannot all take place at once. I can assure the hon. and gallant Member that priority of inquiry does not in any sense indicate a preference for grant, and that the applications from Fife have received and will receive the same full consideration which is given to others.