§ 8. Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many senior officials of her Department are employed within the Northern region.
§ Mr. OakesOne assistant secretary, who is head of my Department's pensions branch and controller of the Darlington site. In addition, 20 members of Her Majesty's inspectorate have their headquarters in the region.
§ Mr. BeithLeaving aside the gentleman who is responsible for pensions on a national basis, may I ask whether the Minister recognises that the centralised nature of his Department causes concern to bodies in the Northern region, including the economic planning council, which find it much easier to get other Departments which have regional offices to coordinate their policies in the light of regional needs and feel that the headquarters-based Department of Education and Science is much more difficult to fit into that framework?
§ Mr. OakesMy right hon. Friend and I met the chairmen of the regional authorities a short time ago. Recently my right hon. Friend has written to the chairman of the Northern region. The difficulty is that our Department does not have a regional base in the same way that the Department of the Environment and the Department of Industry have. But we have undertaken that, whenever education is a substantial Dart of the agenda of the regional council meeting, senior administrators from the Department will attend.
§ Mr. RaisonI congratulate the Minister on the fact that his Department does not have a regional base and does not employ an excessive number of civil servants.