§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the Ninth Report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure recommending the appointment of a consultative panel of representative members of the civil engineering industry to advise Government Departments on the placing of work and contract conditions; and whether he proposes to take steps to see that the Departments concerned adopt this practice?
§ Captain CrookshankThe answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative. As regards the second part I understand that my noble friend the Minister of Works and Buildings has in hand negotiations with the civil engineering and building industries which would involve the establishment of an advisory body representative of both the industries to advise him on any important issues 721W contractual and otherwise connected with constructional works in the Government programme.
§ Mr. Saltasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the Eighth Report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure which recommended that in many cases teams of professional men who had previously worked together as firms would be likely to be more effective than a technical section of a Government Department built up primarily to perform certain functions; and to what extent this advice has been followed by hisown Department, in connection with air-raid precautions work?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonIt is the practice to employ firms of consultants for specialised work on behalf of the Department from time to time, but most work of this kind falls to be done for local authorities. There has been since 1939 an organisation set up by the professional institutions in co-operation with the Department to enable local authorities to supplement their staffs by the employment of outside consultants, and they have done this fairly widely.