§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will make a statement on the implementation to date of the late Mr. Anthony Crosland's decisions on the Matthew Skillington Report for (a) the PSA and (b) the central Department of the Environment.
§ Mr. MarksIn March 1975 my right hon. Friend the late Mr. Anthony Crosland, the then Secretary of State for the Environment, announced that in response to the Matthew-Skillington Report he had appointed Mr. W. D. Lacey to a new post of Director General of Design Services within the Property Services Agency and had set up an Environmental Board within the Department of the Environment.
A new multi-professional Design Office which is, by example, assuming a leading role in establishing high standards of design, has been set up within the PSA Directorate of Design Services and has embarked on a programme of projects which are representative of PSA's work. By redeploying existing resources, staff have been appointed to the Design Office —in step with its workload and to date 63 individuals have joined its strength. The PSA Board has also set up a Design Panel whose function is to evaluate and monitor design matters at top management level. In addition, a forum has been arranged at which design leaders in PSA can consider matters of common interest. There are indications that projects are already benefiting from the increased attention to design matters that these arrangements provide.
As regards the work of the Environmental Board, I would refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State on 21st June 1977.—[Vol. 933, c. 435–6.]