Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 18 Mawrth 1964.
Mr. J. Hill:
asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will name the oil company which received the contract to supply the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Western General Hospital with fuel oil; and what assurance this company gave of fixed prices for future years.
Mr James Stodart
, Edinburgh West
No contract has been placed; none of the oil companies quoted fixed prices for the future.
Mr. Hill:
Is the Minister aware that the importation of oil last year upset the balance of payments by over £500 million and that while the Secretary of State had no fixed prices from the oil companies, he got fixed prices from the Coal Board? As the refineries provide only 2,000 jobs here whereas the Coal Board provides over half a million, was it not a mistake not to give the contract to the Coal Board?
Mr James Stodart
, Edinburgh West
The hon. Member will, I think, agree that I have done my best to explain the factors on which we reached a decision, namely, that despite all these considerations at the end of the day the economic factor was greater than the marginal one which we felt would be justified.
Mr Thomas Fraser
, Hamilton
Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that when he explained the position in the Adjournment Debate a few weeks ago, he compared the fixed-price tendering of the National Coal Board with estimates of what the oil might cost some years hence? Is he not aware that no reasonable person could accept that as an explanation? Did not the kind of explanation which he gave on that occasion suggest to the people of Scotland that there was definite, deliberate bias in favour of one of the offerers?
Mr James Stodart
, Edinburgh West
It is true, and it was made clear, that there was a fixed offer from the Coal Board of the same price for two years from January, 1967, and that there was also the question of the rebate offered by the Board. It is equally true that no fixed price was quoted for oil. I accept that this is not a strictly like comparison—it is impossible to make absolutely like comparisons for a speculative future—but it is, perhaps, unfair and unreasonable necessarily to assume that oil will not come down in price. It is just as possible that it could. This is one of the intangibles.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
An adjournment debate is a short half hour debate that is introduced by a backbencher at the end of each day's business in the House of Commons.
Adjournment debates are also held in the side chamber of Westminster Hall.
This technical procedure of debating a motion that the House should adjourn gives backbench members the opportunity to discuss issues of concern to them, and to have a minister respond to the points they raise.
The speaker holds a weekly ballot in order to decide which backbench members will get to choose the subject for each daily debate.
Backbenchers normally use this as an opportunity to debate issues related to their constituency.
An all-day adjournment debate is normally held on the final day before each parliamentary recess begins. On these occasions MPs do not have to give advance notice of the subjects which they intend to raise.
The leader of the House replies at the end of the debate to all of the issues raised.
