§ 8. Mr. G. Campbellasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will issue a progress report on the first half of the period covered by his White Paper on the Scottish Economy.
§ Mr. RossI would refer the hon. Gentleman to the replies given to the hon. Members for Berwick and East Lothian (Mr. Mackintosh) and Perth and East Perthshire (Mr. MacArthur) on 25th October and 6th December, respectively. —[Vol. 751, c. 1725–6; Vol. 755, c. 1426.]
§ Mr. CampbellAs the halfway point in the six-year period covered by this White Paper was reached a month ago, at the end of 1967, and in view of the drastic changes in policy which the Government have made since the publication of the White Paper, why does the Secretary of State not seek to inform Parliament and the country of the facts?
§ Mr. RossThe hon. Member will appreciate that he has not been reluctant in questioning me on various changes in policy in various debates in this House and elsewhere and getting the kind of information he seeks. We also publish regularly progress reports on various aspects of the economy in the quarterly bulletin on Scottish development.
§ 26 and 27. Mr. MacArthurasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will now publish a revised version of his White Paper, The Scottish Economy 1965–1970, in the light of the Government's latest economic measures;
§ (2) if he will publish a White Paper detailing the effect on the Scottish economy of the Government's latest economic measures.
§ Mr. RossWith permission, I will answer Questions 26 and 27 together.
No, Sir. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has already made clear that the Government will continue to give special priority to the economic growth of the development areas.
§ Mr. MacArthurWith great respect, Operations Nos. 26 and 27 are totally separate. I wish to ask a supplementary question on each. Is that permissible, Mr. Speaker?
§ Mr. SpeakerNo such right exists. Mr. MacArthur: Then my supplementary question is directed to Question No. 27. Why will not the right hon. Gentleman publish a White Paper detailing the effect on the Scottish economy of the cuts following devaluation? Is he aware that three solemn pledges given by the Prime Minister in November have now been broken? Is he aware that the housing programme and school building programme have been cut, and that the hospital programme has been slashed? Will he and his right hon. Friend now make a full and clear statement about the total effect of the cuts on the Scottish economy?
§ Mr. RossNot for the first time, the hon. Gentleman is wrong on all counts. Perhaps he will appreciate exactly what was said about the infrastructure expenditure and look at what is being done about that. He talks about cuts when in fact we are spending more than before, though not as much more as we had recently planned. In the past three years we had hoped to approve about 96,000 houses. We have actually approved 100,000, and we are well ahead of our house building target. If we can get the response from the private sector on a very considerable increase we shall reach our target there. The hon. Gentleman should know quite well that the statement my hon. Friend 1327 made about the school building programme shows that we are still building towards the rate that we intended. The same is true about hospital building. The financial resources placed at the disposal of the regional hospital boards are still higher than was originally proposed.
§ Mr. WillisIs my right hon. Friend aware that this is the third or fourth revised plan for which the hon. Gentleman has called? In view of the debate on Monday, could he tell us how many additional civil servants and how much additional Government expenditure would have been required to produce those three or four additional plans?
§ Mr. RossThere have been a considerable number of demands for more civil servants, and we must add to them all the other demands about local authorities. As usual, hon. Gentlemen opposite are speaking with two voices.
§ Mr. NobleWill the right hon. Gentleman consider the words used by the Prime Minister on 19th November when he said:
But the priority programmes of housing, school building, and hospital building will be safeguarded in all these measures, and the job of bringing work to development areas will be given a still higher priority.How does that fit in with the right hon. Gentleman's statement that my hon. Friend was wrong on all three counts?
§ Mr. RossThe amount of work being done on housing and in the school building and hospital building programmes is higher than last year. It may not have been as high as hon. Gentlemen opposite would like, but they should appreciate that we are talking about what was said in the White Paper on the Scottish economy, where we gave a figure for what we would spend on the infrastructure. We are well up to that target.
§ Mr. MacArthurIn view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment at the earliest opportunity.