No financial ceiling has been imposed on the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. A staff ceiling has been prescribed which permits of an increase of the non-industrial staff of the Department by approximately 25 per cent. above the total of such staff employed on 1st January, 1947. In fixing this ceiling as a limit within which the Department should be authorised to work until further notice, His Majesty's Government gave full weight to the importance of the development of scientific research for the benefit of industry and the community in general and for assisting in the moulding of administrative policy, bearing in mind also the acute shortage of scientific manpower and the necessity for avoidance of measures which might result in disproportionate use of such manpower in industry, Government and the Universities.