HC Deb 25 April 1939 vol 346 cc934-5
2. Mr. Mathers

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the new offices on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, will accommodate all the personnel of the Departments operating in Edinburgh under his jurisdiction; and, if not, what Departments are being excluded from the new building?

Mr. Colville

With certain exceptions mentioned below, it is contemplated that the headquarters staffs of the proposed Home Department and of the Departments of Education, Health and Agriculture, the General Board of Control and a branch of the Stationery Office—to the number of about 1,300 in the aggregate—will be accommodated in the new building. The Insurance Division of the Department of Health, the Statistics Section of the Department of Agriculture, the Pensions Branch of the Education Department, the Registrar-General's Department and the Scottish Juvenile Welfare and After-Care Office—to the number of about 530 in the aggregate—will remain out with the new building. The scheme of allocation is at present under review, and some alterations in the arrangements mentioned may be required.

Mr. Mathers

Can the right hon. Gentleman say where the Departments that are being excluded from the new building are to be provided for, and who is responsible for the under-estimate of the requirements of the staff to be housed in the new building?

Mr. Colville

I cannot agree with that point of view. It was never intended that the building should house all the staff under the Secretary of State's control, but it will make possible a most useful concentration of the essential staffs of the administrative Departments. The Departments have, owing to emergency work, required considerable increases in staff since the building was designed. As regards the location of the staffs outside the new building, perhaps the hon. Gentleman will give me notice.

Mr. Henderson Stewart

Is it not possible to increase the size of the building?

Mr. Colville

I do not think so.