§ Mr. Corfieldasked the Prime Minister if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement indicating the nature of the responsibilities of the Minister of Land and Natural Resources; and if he will differentiate between those responsibilities which have been newly created and those which have been, or are to be, transferred from other Departments.
§ The Prime MinisterMy right hon. Friend the Minister of Land and Natural Resources will participate in the formulation of the national and regional plans for which my right hon. Friend the First Secretary of State has overall responsibility. My right hon. Friend the Minister will be generally responsible for the availability of natural resources to meet the needs of the community and it will be for him to consider the use made of natural resources, the development of new resources and the better use of natural 215W resources of which inadequate use is made at present. Land is the most important and urgent problem, and he will be responsible for the establishment of the Land Commission as soon as possible and for future policies relating to the availability of land as the community needs it.
There will be transferred to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Land and Natural Resources the functions of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government in relation to the National Parks Commission and their powers and duties relating to national parks and long distance routes. There will also be transferred to my right hon. Friend the Minister the existing responsibilities of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food relating to commons land; and his responsibilities for the Forestry Commission, so that the Minister will become responsible, jointly with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, for the Commission and for forestry policy. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales will of course be consulted where Welsh interests in these matters are involved.
My right hon. Friend the Minister will also have responsibilities for the conservation of water and its availability for the various needs of the community. The precise allocation of the statutory responsibilities of the several Ministers concerned with water is a complicated matter and a detailed statement about this will be made in due course.
To avoid misunderstanding I should add that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government will have an important interest in the preparation of the national and regional plans, because of his responsibility for housing and for the conditions in which people live, and for the general system of planning control. He will be responsible for seeing that the policies in the regional plans are implemented in the development plans of planning authorities, and that house-building and other development for which he is responsible goes forward according to whatever programme the plans envisage. As already announced, in Wales these responsibilities will fall to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.