HC Deb 26 February 1975 vol 887 cc471-2
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list his departmental responsibilities in Scotland.

The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Anthony Crosland)

My Department is responsible in Scotland for commercial ports; railways; road freight; licensing and testing of road vehicles, and regulations on their construction and use; driving tests; sponsorship of the construction industry; the provision—by the Property Services Agency—of accommodation and related services for Government Departments, and the management of defence lands.

Mr. Dalyell

What benefit would accrue in terms of efficiency and to the Scottish taxpayer if those functions were hived off to a Scottish Assembly?

Mr. Crosland

That is not for me, as an Englishman, to pronounce upon. The few functions that my Department exercises in Scotland are all matters that it has been thought convenient and efficient to administer on a Great Britain basis. But all these matters are subject to the most intensive study at present.

Mr. Rifkind

With regard to the Minister's responsibility for defence lands in Scotland, will he explain why, although it has been announced that live firing will not continue in the Pentland hills, his Department has also announced that it will be many years before it is possible to make that decision take effect so that the public may use the hills?

Mr. Crosland

I agree that all sorts of live firing go on in all sorts of places. If the hon. Gentleman will put down a Question on that, I shall be happy to answer it.

Mrs. Winifred Ewing

If the right hon. Gentleman is with his Government colleagues in supporting the principle of devolution, may I ask him a simple question? Why has he not already devolved to the Scottish Office the greatest number of the items on the list he has given? What is his time scale for doing so?

Mr. Dalyell

The Scottish people will have to pay for all our railways.

Mr. Crosland

The Scottish Office already exercises by far the greater number of, and by far the most important, functions of the Deparment of the Environment in Scotland. The remaining functions are under active study as part of the whole devolution study. As to the timetable, I have nothing to add to what my right hon. Friend the Lord President said in the debate on the subject about a fortnight ago.

Mr. John Evans

Does my right hon. Friend accept that if there is a strong case for hiving off to an elected Scottish Assembly the activities he has just outlened, there is an equally strong case for them to be hived off to an elected North-West regional assembly?

Mr. Crosland

That is an extremely interesting point, which has been much discussed.