§ 36. Mr. MANDERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the precise nature of the work to be carried out by the Home Office Air-raids Precautions Department at 5, Princes Street, Westminster; and when he proposes to inform the public as to what precautions should be taken in the event of aerial attacks?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir John Gilmour)I am glad to have this opportunity of informing the House that, in accordance with the policy foreshadowed by my right hon. Friend the Lord President of the Council on the 30th July last year, a special department of the Home Office, under an Assistant Under-Secretary of State, is being formed at the address given in the question to act as the channel for communicating to local authorities in England and Wales the details of the measures which it will be necessary for them to take for the purpose of organising local services for safeguarding the civil population against the effects of air attack. The new department will not be fully staffed until the beginning of next month, and its first important duty will then be the issue to local authorities of a general circular outlining the Government's policy and the directions in which the co-operation of local authorities will be required. Instructions as to the precautions to be taken by individual members of the public will follow. I am not in a position to give precise dates when this action will be taken, but I hope to have a later opportunity of giving fuller information to the House.