§ Mr. Prittasked the Minister of National Insurance whether he will give an undertaking that the offices of his Ministry will not be transferred in whole or in part to Newcastle-on-Tyne or other provincial centre until adequate permanent accommodation is available in sufficient volume to house all the staff involved.
§ Sir W. JowittNo, Sir. Certain transfers of existing staff will be unavoidably necessary in order to set free for normal use the accommodation they at present occupy. At a later stage it will be necessary to make other transfers in order to build up the organisation without which the new insurance scheme cannot begin to function. These operations will be carried out in consultation with the staff and every effort will be made to mitigate hardship in individual cases.