§ Mr. Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the constitution of the Civil Defence Joint Planning Staff, Industrial Planning Panel; on what dates it has met; what advice it has issued to industry on the setting up of a separate Industrial Civil Defence 209W Force; and whether he will expedite and assist in the setting up of an Industrial Civil Defence Force.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeThe organisations represented on the Industrial Panel of the Civil Defence Joint Planning Staff are the British Employers' Confederation, the Federation of British Industries, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, the National Union of Manufacturers, the Retail Distributive Trades Conference, the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Trades Union Congress. Four formal meetings have been held, on 21st September and 12th December, 1950, and on 21st March and 10th December, 1951, and there has at all times been informal contact between the Department and these organisations.
I am sending to the hon. Member a memorandum on the organisation of Civil Defence in industrial and commercial premises which was issued in May, 1951; proposals for defining the relationship between industrial civil defence units and the Civil Defence Corps are at present under consideration by the Panel.