§ Mr. Monroasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many times in each of the last five years the Civil Defence Corps was called in to help with national or local emergencies in Scotland.
§ Mr. RossWhile I should like to pay tribute to the volunteers from the Civil Defence Corps who have turned out to help in such circumstances, the terms of their enrolment relate specifically to a war emergency, and there is no central record of their services in peace-time emergencies.
§ Mr. Monroasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many full-time Civil Defence staff will be redundant in Scotland in 1968;
(2) what will be the total of full-time Civil Defence staff retained in Scotland at the end of 1968; and what was the corresponding figure on 1st January, 1968.
§ Mr. RossOn 1st January, 1968, there were 235 such staff in the employment of Government Departments: it is estimated that at the end of this year the number will be 127. The figure for 1st January includes the staff at Taymouth Castle Civil Defence Training School, which is the subject of a separate Question by the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department.
About 270 full-time civil defence staff were employed by local authorities at 1st January. No estimate of the corresponding figure for the end of the year can be given in advance of the consultations which my Department will be having with the local authority associations about the implications of the decision to place civil defence on a care and maintenance basis.
The hospital service employ 17 staff whose future will be the subject of consultation between Regional Hospital Boards and my Department.
43WI hope that employing authorities will be able to absorb within their own organisations a proportion of the officers whose posts will become redundant.—[Vol. 757, c. 421.]