Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.
Mr Richard Sharples
, Sutton and Cheam
12:00,
4 Tachwedd 1965
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will now make a statement on the outcome of the Government's review of the Civil Defence organisation.
Sir Frank Soskice
, Newport (Monmouthshire/Gwent)
The review is still in progress.
Mr Richard Sharples
, Sutton and Cheam
Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman not appreciate that his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence said more than three months ago that the Government would be making an announcement on this very soon? Does he not appreciate the very real effect on morale which this continuing delay is having on Civil Defence workers?
Sir Frank Soskice
, Newport (Monmouthshire/Gwent)
An announcement will be made as soon as possible. I understand the need to end uncertainty
Mr Hugh Jenkins
, Wandsworth Putney
Is not the Civil Defence organisation now generally accepted as being redundant? Is it not generally expected that the review will reveal this to be so and abolish the organisation, which no longer has any useful purpose to serve in a nuclear age?
Sir Frank Soskice
, Newport (Monmouthshire/Gwent)
I will certainly not accept that.
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.
