§ Captain MACNAMARAasked the Home Secretary, in view of the fact that the Army, the Royal Air Force, the police, ambulance and hospital services, decontamination squads, etc., are administered by the War Office, Air Ministry, Home Office, and Ministry of Health, often working through local authorities, have any arrangements been made by districts for all such services to be under the actual command of one officer in the event of an air attack on this country; if so, is such an officer 51W given facilities for the co-ordinated training of these services in peace time; and who is the official responsible at present in any district for ordering a blackout in the event of a sudden air attack?
§ Mr. LLOYDSubject to general guidance from the Air Raids Precautions Department of the Home Office, the responsibility for working out and coordinating necessary measures of precaution against the emergency of air attack rests with the various local authorities. The question of the form of executive organisation to be adopted in the event of war is under consideration. With regard to the last part of the question, it would fall to the Secretary of State for the Home Department in time of war to issue any general orders that might be necessary for the regulation and restriction of lighting. It would be the duty of the Chief Officer of Police in each district to make the necessary arrangements for giving effect to any such orders.