HC Deb 15 June 1966 vol 729 cc1453-5
45. Mr. James Davidson

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what administrative arrangements he has made for maintaining and running his official residence in Scotland.

Mr. Ross

I refer to the reply given by my honourable and learned Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 18th May. No. 6 Charlotte Square will be administered by the Trust that is being set up for the purpose.

Mr. Davidson

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that, as this is to be his official residence, the building should be taken over by the Ministry of Public Building and Works and it should not he left to the National Trust to run part of the building and to the Scottish Council for Development and Industry to find the necessary money?

Mr. Ross

I do not consider that the hon. Gentleman is right here. The initiative came not from the Government but from outside, from people who are concerned about Edinburgh and the need there for an official residence for the Secretary of State. I think that the arrangement can work quite well in this way. There are precedents for it, for instance, in relation to Chequers and Dorneywood.

Mr. Woodburn

Is not great credit due to the Bute family for their efforts in preserving this house and the whole Adam structure of Charlotte Square for the nation, and is not this an excellent way of making public use of it?

Mr. Ross

One of the side effects, of course, is that this very desirable property of outstanding architectural merit is thus preserved.

Mr. Galbraith

I entirely agree that the right hon. Gentleman in his office should have an official residence in Scotland, but can he explain why official residences in England are furnished and provided by the taxpayer whereas in Scotland a different arrangement is made?

Mr. Ross

I am prepared to answer the question as it affects this office in Scotland and the way in which the matter arose. Questions on the other matters should be addressed to somebody else and not to me.

Mr. Hugh D. Brown

I recognise the need for a modest flat for a modest man in Edinburgh, but surely it is wrong to continue a precedent which was wrong in the first place in accepting private money to subsidise an official residence.

Mr. Ross

I assure my hon. Friend that this is more than just a private residence in which the Secretary of State will live. It will also be possible for the Secretary of State to fulfil his functions in relation to the growing demand in Edinburgh for official recognition of international conferences to give hospitality without having to hire rooms in a hotel.

Earl of Dalkeith

May I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to my constituency and ask him whether he is planning to open his new stately home to the public at any time?

Mr. Ross

I assure the hon. Gentleman—I am surprised that he does not know this—that since the building is owned or has been handed over to the National Trust it must be open to the public. Although I am in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, he has an awful lot of changes to make in his personal political thinking before he gets my vote.

Mr. Emrys Hughes

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the Marquess of Bute was able to be so generous to the nation only because the miners of Ayrshire and the tenant farmers in Ayrshire were so generous to him?