Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.
Miss Megan Lloyd George
, Carmarthen
12:00,
4 Tachwedd 1965
All I can say to that is that there is some lack in communication between the usual channels in the hon. Gentleman's party if he did not know about that.
The Government have shown a practical regard for Wales by appointing a Secretary of State for the first time and a Minister of State in the House and an Under-Secretary of State and a Swyddfa Gymreig in Whitehall. I realise that there is no pleasing the hon. Member for Cardiff, North. First he says that the Secretary of State has been a failure, and then he says that he wants to extend his powers. It is very difficult to know exactly what the hon. Gentleman wants. I agree with the hon. and learned Member for Montgomery, who says that already during the short period that the Secretary of State has been in office he has found the facilities and accessibility of the Welsh Office of great advantage, so much so that he would like to see the powers of the Secretary of State extended.
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.
Whitehall is a wide road that runs through the heart of Westminster, starting at Trafalgar square and ending at Parliament. It is most often found in Hansard as a way of referring to the combined mass of central government departments, although many of them no longer have buildings on Whitehall itself.
