§ Mr. SMITHERSasked the First Commissioner of Works why some, if not all, the Government staffs at Sanctuary Buildings, Westminster, should not be housed in buildings not less than three miles from Charing Cross; and why the work now performed at Sanctuary Buildings cannot be carried out with equal efficiency in buildings outside the highly-rented districts of the Metropolis?
§ Mr. LANSBURYThe staffs housed in Sanctuary Buildings are all headquarter organisations, or parts of headquarter organisations, and, as such, require to be housed in the central area; as regards the second part of the question, I may say that the possibilities of transferring official staffs from premises in the central area of London were exhaustively investigated by an Interdepartmental Committee some years ago, and that the recommendations of that committee were adopted so far as was considered practicable without serious detriment to the public service.