HC Deb 12 July 1972 vol 840 cc1565-6
14. Mr. Maclennan

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will indicate the proposed location, and describe the staffing arangements and functions, of the Scottish regional office of the Agricultural Intervention Board.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

The location has not yet been decided. The office will accommodate staff co-ordinating the activities of field staff engaged on intervention work, providing information to the trade and carrying out functions of audit and financial control.

Mr. Maclennan

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that by the centralisation of the board in Reading under the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the Secretary of State has surrendered control over an important aspect of the Scottish agricultural economy? Will he say however, that the Government are not averse even now to seeking special régimes of assistance for Scottish agriculture which can be administered by his office?

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

I totally disagree with the first part of the hon. Gentleman's question, because the board is answerable jointly to the agricultural Ministers, including my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State as well as my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. There are very good reasons for its location in Reading and they were spelt out in considerable detail by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture in the House on 22nd June.

Mr. Buchan

Regardless of whether the board will ever come into existence, the Government's action in announcing accidentally in the course of a debate in the House that the board would be sited at Reading, without spelling out the reasons for sending it there, has shocked many people in the industry. Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that it runs entirely counter to the whole dispersal policy of the previous Government as well as of the present Government? Will he now consider establishing the main office of the board in Scotland or in another development area?

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

It comes ill from a member of a previous Government which sited the Forestry Commission at Basingstoke to talk like that. Either the hon. Gentleman did not attend the debate on 22nd June or he did not read the OFFICIAL REPORT afterwards. In that debate my right hon. Friend made a carefully prepared statement on precisely what the functions of the board are and why it is going to Reading.