HC Deb 03 April 1941 vol 370 cc1143-4
18. Mr. Kenneth Lindsay

asked the Home Secretary whether he will make an immediate review of the Civil Defence services on Clydeside and also the arrangements for evacuation and communal feeding with a view to securing a greater measure of efficiency and co-ordination?

Mr. H. Morrison

The experience of the recent raids has already been the subject of close examination and is being examined in all its aspects by the Departments concerned, in consultation with the Regional Commissioner and District Commissioner.

Mr. Lindsay

Will the right hon. Gentleman pay particular attention in the examination to a closer relation between the Civil Defence services proper and those coming under the Department of Health? Also, who is responsible for seeing that feeding arrangements, which are now under voluntary, statutory and industrial supervision, are co-ordinated? Who is responsible for evacuation? Is it the Regional Commissioner or the local authority, because these questions are exercising considerable attention on Clydeside?

Mr. Morrison

Supervision of communal feeding is the responsibility of the Ministry of Food. Evacuation is the responsibility of the Department of Health in Scotland. Co-ordination will be effected in Scotland as a whole through the Regional Commissioner. There is the closest relationship between the Secretary of State and myself and the Scottish Department at Edinburgh and the Regional Commissioner. I am shortly going to Scotland, and I hope to confer with all the authorities on the spot.

Mr. R. Gibson

Would it not be more effective and more efficient if the whole matter was dealt with by the Secretary of State for Scotland?

Mr. Granville

Will the right hon. Gentleman acquaint himself with the remarks of the Minister of Labour yesterday with regard to the serious shortage of canteen arrangements in the docks in that area?

Mr. Morrison

That would not be my responsibility, but that of the Minister of Transport. It is quite impossible to centralise every function which has any bearing upon Civil Defence. You would just get the machine choked. On the point raised by my hon. and learned Friend opposite, I do not think there is any need for any change in that respect. The appropriate Department does the appropriate job. While I would not press the analogy too far, it might be as unwise to split up the security and strategical considerations of Civil Defence as a national concern as it would be to disconnect the Army in Scotland from its proper contacts with the Imperial General Staff at the War Office.