Aircraft Industry (Hansard, 5 July 1966)

§ 22. Mr. Hastings
asked the Minister of Technology what administrative arrangements he has made for dealing with research, development and construction in the civil aircraft industry; what additional arrangements he proposes in the near future; and what discusssions he has had with the industry and the Society of British Aircraft Constructors with a view to determining the nature of this machinery.

§ Mr. Benn
Responsibility for the aircraft industry continues to be with the Minister of Aviation until the transfer to my Department announced by the Prime Minister on 16th June takes place.

§ Mr. Hastings
Will the right hon. Gentleman do a little better than that? Can he say when talks will be started with the S.B.A.C., which has no inkling as yet as to what form the new arrangements will take? Does he not think that it is time that this industry, which this year alone will be responsible for about £200 million worth of exports, was given some adequate means of communication with the Government? Will he do his best to see that that is brought forward?

§ Mr. Benn
As I said, the Ministry of Aviation is responsible for contacts with the industry until transfer takes place. When transfer takes place, those staff who have been in contact with the industry and other relevant staff will move 235 to my Department. I do not think that the difficulties of the transfer will be as great as the hon. Gentleman suggests.

§ Mr. Rankin
Is it not the case that military and civil aircraft research and development and so on have been interdependent ever since we embarked on these projects? Does my right hon. Friend think that it will be an advance if we now separate them and put them under separate Ministers?

§ Mr. Benn
Those considerations were in the Prime Minister's mind before the decision was announced on 16th June it is in order to eliminate any doubts about the details of the transfer that discussions are now going on with the Ministry of Defence about the exact definition of Ministry of Aviation responsibilities. I am sure that my hon. Friend will see the great value of bringing aviation engineering into a Department which has wide responsibilities for the allocation of R. and D. in the country as a whole.

§ Mr. J. H. Osborn
Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind as the new Minister that he is now taking on far too many new activities and that communication is the most essential feature of the new post? Will he again consider the amount of activity which he is taking under his own wing?

§ Mr. Benn
The allocation of responsibilities within the Government is a matter for the Prime Minister to decide, but it is a little early for the hon. Gentleman to assume that an industry is necessarily wrongly placed in the context and under the sponsorship of one Ministry which, for the first time, brings responsibilities for the engineering industry together with the Government research effort.

§ Sir A. V. Harvey
Will the right hon. Gentleman represent to his colleague, the Minister of Aviation, before he takes over that the House should be informed of the date some time beforehand? Is he aware that I recently put a Question down for answer by the Minister of Aviation tomorrow and received only 48 hours' notice of its transfer to the Board of Trade, well down the list? Is not this a very discourteous way to treat hon. Members?

§ Mr. Benn
The allocation of Questions as between Ministers is not a matter for 236 me, but I will certainly bear in mind what the hon. Gentleman has said about the exact date on which transfer will take place.

§ Mr. David Price
Although the responsibilities of the right hon. Gentleman's Ministry have obviously not been of his own choosing and there is always a reasonable argument between vertical and horizontal structure, the Prime Minister having decided on the one, will the right hon. Gentleman take care in dealing with these industries to assist them with their selling problems where he can?

§ Mr. Benn
This is a responsibility which rests particularly with the Board of Trade, but I do not think that any Ministry responsible as we are for the advancement of technology in Britain could possibly fail to take due account of the export potentialities of developments, and we shall try to encourage them as far as possible.