Britain: An official handbook > 1956

GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
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Monuments Acts and the maintenance of those ancient monuments and historic
buildings which are in the Ministry’s charge; the maintenance of Royal Palaces and
certain official residences; the ‘ physical ’ arrangements (architectural and engineering
services) for certain State ceremonial occasions; the management and maintenance
of the Royal Parks and certain other open spaces.
The Ministry also has responsibilities for the building programme and for the
efficiency and welfare of the building and civil engineering and building materials
industries, including: oversight of the national building programme; maintenance
of a list of all building and civil engineering firms and collection of statistical
returns; oversight of the production of building materials and fitments; consulta¬
tion with the industries at national and regional level; encouragement of apprentice¬
ship and training in the building and electrical contracting industries; review of
building research and development work to meet the industry’s requirements, and
to ensure that results of research are made available to the industry.
By a special arrangement, announced by the Prime Minister in November 1953,
the Minister of Works has been made responsible for answering questions in the
House of Commons concerning atomic energy, since the responsible Minister—the
Lord President of the Council—is a member of the House of Lords.
SCOTLAND
The first Secretary for Scotland was appointed in 1885 in recognition of the fact
that Scotland required a separate system of administration from that of England
and Wales. In 1926, all the powers and duties attached to the office were transferred
by the Secretaries of State Act to a principal Secretary of State.
The functions of the Secretary of State, who is assisted at ministerial level by a
Minister of State, three Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and the Scottish Law
Officers, are discharged by four main administrative Departments of equal status,
each under a Secretary responsible to the Secretary of State for the discharge of
the duties of the Department. The day-to-day administration of the Departments
is conducted in Edinburgh, but each Department has representatives in London
for liaison and Parliamentary duties. This London office is generally known as
the Scottish Office, a term also used to describe the whole system of Scottish
administration.1
The four main Scottish Departments are the Scottish Home Department, the
Department of Health for Scotland, the Scottish Education Department, and the
Department of Agriculture for Scotland.
The Scottish Home Department
The Scottish Home Department was set up in 1939 to take over the work that
had been undertaken previously by the Secretary of State’s Office, and by the
Fishery Board for Scotland and the Prisons Department for Scotland.
In the field of law and order, the Department is concerned with the police,
probation and remand home services, criminal justice, legal aid and the services
needed by the courts; it is directly responsible for the administration of prisons
and Borstal institutions.
1 A Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs, set up in 1952 to review ‘the arrangements
for exercising the functions of Her Majesty’s Government in relation to Scotland’,
reported in 1954 that the existing organization of Scottish administration was working
satisfactorily. Following the Commission’s recommendations, the Government decided
that responsibility in Scotland for roads, the appointment of justices of the peace, and
animal health (apart from the control of epidemic diseases) should be transferred from other
Ministers to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
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