§ Mr. Championasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer upon what basis does he allocate steel for railway wagon building purposes as between the Railway Executive for use in its own wagon buildings shops and privately owned undertakings building wagons both for the British Railways and for export.
§ Sir A. SalterSteel is allocated to private manufacturers of wagons by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Supply from an allocation made to his Department to cover the main bulk of the engineering industries. The steel allocation to the Railway Executive's own wagon building shops comes out of a bulk allocation to the Railway Executive made by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport from an allocation to his Department designed to cover the needs of the railways, docks, harbours, etc.
The allocations to Departments are made by an inter-Departmental Committee presided over by a Minister.