§ Mr. Rileyasked the Minister of Agriculture how often meetings of county agricultural committees are convened; whether such meetings are prescribed by regulation or left to the discretion of the committees; whether full-time technically experienced officials are attached to each county committee; and whether he is receiving regular reports from the committees of the work they are doing?
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§ Sir R. Dorman-SmithI am not sure whether the hon. Member is referring to the agricultural committees of county councils or to the county war agricultural executive committees appointed by me. County agricultural committees are statutory bodies, over whose proceedings I have no jurisdiction. The constitution schemes of these committees provide that their proceedings shall be in accordance with such regulations as may be made from time to time by the county council, and subject thereto will be such as the committee may direct. The frequency of meetings of these committees probably varies in accordance with local requirements. Full-time technical officials are employed by the county councils and their services are doubtless available to the committees. Committees are not required to supply my Department with reports of their proceedings, but, in practice, many of them do so. The county war agricultural executive committees have, of course, largely superseded county agricultural committees under emergency conditions. The meetings of county war agricultural executive committees are not prescribed by regulation and arrangements are made by the committees to meet as often as is considered necessary. As a general rule, committees meet at least once a week and sometimes more often, in addition to meetings of subcommittees dealing with particular aspects of the committees' work. Full-time technical officials are attached to war executive committees and I receive regular reports from the committees of their work.