HC Deb 30 November 1943 vol 395 cc230-1W
Mr. Pethick-Lawrence

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any statement to make, as regards Scotland, on the matters dealt with for England and Wales in the Scott Report?

Mr. Johnston

The Scott Committee dealt only with conditions in England and Wales but, in February, 1943, I appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Lord Normand, Lord President of the Court of Session, to consider the English Committee's recommendations so far as they were applicable to Scots conditions. Lord Normand's Committee reported that the Scottish problems were being dealt with by the Committees set up by me in consultation with my Council of ex-Secretaries of State and by the Scottish Departments in consultation with the Ministries concerned and the appropriate Scottish organisations. The Committees which I have set up cover many subjects of vital importance to the Scottish countryside such as housing, education, hydro-electric development, hill sheep, land settlement, design of farm buildings and the herring industry. The Scottish Council on Industry is also concerning itself with the establishment and maintenance of rural industries, including inquiry into such matters as the wool industry, the white fish industry and canning. The Committee on Hydro-Electric Development has already reported and the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee have reported on two of the matters remitted to them for inquiry. The other Committees should be in a position to report at an early date. The Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act passed this year is the first fruit of the work of those Committees. The Secretary of State exercises in Scotland functions parallel to those of the Minister of Town and Country Planning in England and Wales and the machinery of planning is similar in both countries. The Scottish Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) Act, which became law on the 11th November, is the counterpart of the English Act passed earlier this year. The Secretary of State, as the Minister responsible in Scotland not only for town and country planning but also for agriculture, education, housing and public health, is in a specially favourable position to secure the effective co-ordination of matters of policy on the main questions affecting land utilisation in rural areas in Scotland.