HC Deb 29 November 1949 vol 470 cc951-4
The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a statement.

Copies of the Report of the Committee on the Cost of Home Information Services under the chairmanship of Sir Henry French are now available in the Vote Office. I will not attempt to summarise the Report in detail, but it may help the House to have a general outline of the Committee's findings.

The Report endorses the post-war reorganisation of the home information services, including the establishment of the Central Office of Information as a common service agency and the continuance of information divisions and their Press sections in the departments, and suggests only minor changes in the existing arrangements. It reviews the procedure for initiating publicity projects, recommends tightened control of departmental proposals involving Central Office of Information expenditure and suggests an annual review by Ministers of the broad trends of publicity expenditure.

It gives guidance on the principles which should be followed by departmental Press officers. It describes the considerations which should govern the choice and use of the various media and suggests certain changes of emphasis in the light of experience and altered circumstances, notably reductions in the use of Press and poster advertising, films and large exhibitions. As regards costs, a number of suggestions for economy are made, and the Committee recommend that Departments should take steps to see that expenditure on home information services during 1949–50 is kept as far as possible below the Estimate figure.

The Government are indebted to Sir Henry French and the Committee for a valuable Report which will be most helpful to all who are concerned with the official information services. It covers a wide field, including a number of technical matters, like the best use of Press and poster advertising and films and the most effective methods of conducting campaigns with broad general objectives on which there are legitimate differences of opinion among experts—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—experts.

But while we cannot be committed on every detail, and there are some points on which we would disagree with the Committee's emphasis, we accept the Report as a whole, and action has been taken on the lines recommended. In a number of important instances, indeed, the Report came as useful confirmation of measures of economy which had been put into effect or were under consideration when it was received.

Reductions in expenditure on lines consistent with the Committee's recommendations will contribute to the saving of nearly £700,000 which is likely to be made this financial year on the estimated home information expenditure, and I am glad to be able to tell the House that expenditure on home information next year is expected to be nearly £1,200,000 below the 1949–50 original Estimate total of slightly over £5 million. Savings of this order have necessitated the elimination or curtailment of projects which, in more favourable circumstances, would have been fully justified, and I wish to make it clear that, like the Committee, we regard the maintenance of adequate information services as an indispensable aid to administration in modern conditions as well as a democratic necessity. I should also like to take the opportunity of paying tribute once again to the zeal and efficiency with which Government information staffs have carried out their important duties and have co-operated in effecting substantial economies.

Mr. Eden

We are obliged to the right hon. Gentleman for this synopsis. We shall take an early opportunity of reading the Report.

Mr. Eric Fletcher

Will the Lord President of the Council either confirm or deny the rumour in circulation that it is proposed to close the Crown Film Unit studio at Beaconsfield?

Mr. Morrison

I do not think there is any question of closing the Crown Film Unit. It will, of course, be subject to the consideration of certain economies, but I do not think it goes as far as that.

Mr. Osborne

Is the Lord President of the Council satisfied that the Central Office of Information has wisely spent this money in view of the Government's own confession in Command 7572, paragraph 30, that it has been unable to make the people of this country realise that we are in the midst of a real and desperate economic crisis?

Mr. Morrison

I cannot remember the particular White Paper, though I take the assurance of the hon. Gentleman that it exists. What I am perfectly sure about is that if there had been no information service which was capable of giving to the British people the facts of our economic circumstances, the condition of our country would be infinitely worse and more difficult today that it is.