§ 72. Mr. G. Robertsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps are being taken to ensure that established officers now serving with the Ministry of Food in the North Wales area will be absorbed into other Government Departments in their present localities when the Ministry of Food is discontinued.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterEstablished civil servants are, of course, liable to be called on to serve in any part of the country. But I recognise that the large reductions being effected in the staff of the Ministry of Food give rise to difficult personal problems for many of the staff concerned. Arrangements for reposting of established staff to other Government Departments are, therefore, being made on the basis that local vacancies in these Departments are being allotted to those of the Ministry of Food established staff who have the strongest claims to local postings on hardship grounds. But as North Wales is an area containing relatively few Government establishments I am afraid it will not be possible to find sufficient of such vacancies to provide for all who wish to remain there. We are, however, doing our best to help the hardest cases.