§ 45. Mr. Callaghanasked the Prime Minister what are the more important matters of policy on which he is prepared to answer questions intended for the Secretary of State for the Co-ordination of Transport, Fuel and Power, and the Lord President of the Council, respectively.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill)In the main, matters on which Questions could not conveniently be answered by the Departmental Ministers concerned.
§ Mr. CallaghanAs they are apparently limited to matters of contemplation and advice, does that mean that there is nothing we can ask these co-ordinating Ministers through the Prime Minister?
§ The Prime MinisterIt is always hard to say that no contingency can ever arise on which any intervention by the Opposition, however unjustifiable, might not occur.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonIs it not a fact that certainly the Secretary of State for the Co-ordination of etc., etc., and, I think, by implication the Lord President, in his co-ordinating capacity, were declared to be responsible for policy—certainly the Secretary of State, and I thought the Lord President, also, for the policy of the Ministries of Food and Agriculture? If that is so, which I believe to be the case, does it not follow that somebody has to be answerable, as distinct from the Departmental Ministers, for the policy of those Departments under the supervising Ministers?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir. The Government as a whole are responsible.
§ Mr. MorrisonI follow that, but it is an absurd answer because if the whole of Her Majesty's Government were at once simultaneously to answer Parliamentary Questions it would be an interesting spectacle. I want to know which Minister is to answer those aspects of Questions. Is it to be the Prime Minister? We really ought to know.
§ The Prime MinisterIf any doubt existed in the end, in the very difficult—[Interruption.] I was putting the opposite way. If any doubt of that kind existed, of an almost metaphysical character, the Prime Minister or the Leader of the House of Commons would endeavour to step into the breach.
§ Mr. CallaghanAs the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport was unable last week to answer a Question about the terms of reference to the Consultative Committee on fares outside London, will the Prime Minister answer it, if I put it down to him, or will he seek to transfer it?
§ The Prime MinisterI will either answer it or seek to transfer it in accordance with what may seem to be the proper practice.
§ Mr. CallaghanWould it not be far better if the Prime Minister would tell us now, if he knows, what he is prepared to answer?
§ The Prime MinisterI should like to see the Questions before I answer them.
§ 46. Mr. Callaghanasked the Prime Minister, in view of the fact that none of the co-ordinating Ministers for the eight Ministries of Transport, Fuel and Power, Agriculture, Food, the Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and Supply, are Members of the House of Commons, what steps he will take to make the Government more answerable to this House on major matters of policy concerning these Departments.
§ The Prime MinisterSeven of the eight Departments mentioned are in the charge of Members of this House.
§ Mr. CallaghanIs not that something we are very doubtful about in view of recent developments? Does the Prime Minister not realise that having brought the issue of co-ordinating Ministers out into the light of day, there is now a responsibility on him to see that the overlords are answerable in some way to this House? If so, how is he to achieve that?