§ 2. Mr. Wingfield Digbyasked the Minister of Land and Natural Resources if he has considered the Seventh Report of the Estimates Committee on the Forestry Commission; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WilleyMy right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales and I have comprehensively reviewed the organisation of the Forestry Commission, taking account of the recommendations made by the Estimates Committee. We found ourselves in wide agreement with the Committee. We propose a number of changes which are set out in full in our Observations on the Report of the Committee, which are, I understand, being published today.
Among other changes, we have decided that the Commission should be reconstituted so that in future four of the statutory Commissioners should be full-time members; and that there should be a functional reorganisation of the staff and work under these full-time members, with greater delegation from Headquarters.
The Chairman of the Commission, Lord Waldegrave, is in full agreement with our proposals. To facilitate the reorganisation, he and also the other Commissioners have placed their offices at our disposal, and we are grateful to them.
I should like to take this opportunity of paying tribute to Lord Waldegrave, to whose work the development of the Commission has owed a great deal. My right hon. Friends and I hope to be able to announce the names of his successor and of the other Commissioners very soon.