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Permanent Advisory Committees to the British Government Departments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
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A significant development in British government since the turn of the century is the permanent advisory committees to the British executive departments. Writing in 1926, Professor John A. Fairlie stated: “Detailed information as to the operation of such advisory committees is not available; but the multiplication of such bodies in recent years is an indication that they have been found useful.” At the time when this statement was written, there were 60 permanent advisory committees. In the subsequent 13 years, 37 additional ones have been established, making a total of 97 at the present time. This continued multiplication, and the extensive use of such committees made by the departments, indicates that they fill an imperative need in British government by providing expert advice. Likewise, they serve to protect the public interest, because they furnish an adequate safeguard for the public against a bureaucracy whose powers are increasing as the expansion of governmental functions continues.
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- Foreign Government and Politics
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- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1940
References
1 “Advisory Committees in British Administration,” in this Review, Vol. 20, pp. 813–822 (Nov., 1926).
2 The following list comprises the bulk of committees in existence today, with the dates of their creation:
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
Small Holdings and Allotments Advisory Committees, 1907
Advisory Council for Agricultural Education, 1913
Consultative Councils to the Forestry Commission, 1919
Agricultural Advisory Council, 1919
Council of Agriculture for England, 1919
Council of Agriculture for Wales, 1919
Fertilizer and Feeding Stuffs Committee, 1919; 1926
Committee to Advise on Grants to Unemployed Persons, 1919
Market Supply Committee, 1919
Sea Fish Commission, 1919
Cattle Committee, 1919; 1934
County Agricultural Committees, 1919
Committee on Agricultural Credit, 1922
County Agricultural Wages Committee, 1924
Agricultural Wages Board, 1924
Agricultural Land Utilization Advisory Committee, 1931
Consumers' Committees and Committee of Investigation under Agricultural Marketing Schemes, 1931
Advisory Committee to the Sugar Commission, 1936
Land Fertility Committee, 1937
Livestock Advisory Committee, 1937
Slaughter House Schemes Advisory Committee, 1937
Livestock Market Orders Advisory Committee, 1937
Whitefish Industry Joint Council, 1938
Herring Industry Advisory Council, 1938
Bacon Curers' Advisory Committee, 1938
Air Ministry
Aëronautics Advisory Committee, 1909, replaced by Aëronautical Research Committee, 1920
Colonial Office
Advisory Committee on Tropical Diseases Research Fund, 1904
Colonial Survey Committee, 1905
Colonial Advisory Medical and Sanitary Committee, 1909
Colonial Research Committee, 1919
Advisory Committee on Native Education in the British Tropical African Dependencies, 1923
Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene, 1924
Board of Education
Education Consultative Committee, 1899; 1921
Advisory Committee on Grants to Universities and Colleges, 1911
Adult Education Committee, 1921
Advisory Committee on Freedom of Educational Films from Customs Duty, 1935
Ministry of Health
National Insurance Committees, 1911; 1924
Advisory Committee on Health Insurance
Consultative Councils, 1919
a. Medical and Allied Services
b. Local Health Administration
c. General Health Questions
d. Water Supplies
Therapeutic Substances Advisory Committee, 1925
Rural Housing Advisory Committee, 1931
Central Housing Advisory Committee, 1935
Medical Benefit Council for Northern Ireland, 1936
Advisory Committee on Tuberculosis Seamen, 1936
National Advisory Council for Physical Training and Recreation for England and Wales, 1937
Home Office
Council on Police Forces in England and Wales, 1919
Prison Education Committee
Advisory Committee on Street Collections, 1923
Probation and After-Care Advisory Committee
Poisons Board, 1933
Central Advisory Council for Fire Services, 1938
Ministry of Labor
National Advisory Council for Juvenile Employment for England and Wales
London Regional Advisory Council for Juvenile Employment
National Council for Juvenile Employment for Scotland
Advisory Committee on Unemployment Insurance, 1931
Local Advisory Committees to the Unemployment Assistance Board, 1934
Unemployment Insurance Statutory Commission, 1934; 1935
Central and Local Unemployment Insurance Committees, 1935
Local Employment Committees, 1935
Ministry of Pensions
Local Pensions Committees, 1908
Post Office
Post Office Advisory Council
Scottish Office
Consultative Councils to the Scottish Board of Health, 1919
Council of Agriculture, 1920
Education Advisory Council, 1920
Probation Committees, 1931
Housing Advisory Committee, 1935
Local Housing Advisory Board, 1935
Criminal Lunatic Asylum Advisory Committee, 1935
Records Advisory Council, 1937
National Advisory Council for Physical Training and Recreation, 1937
Scottish Central Advisory Council for Fire Services, 1938
Board of Trade
Advisory Council
Census of Production Advisory Committee, 1906
Advisory Committee on Merchant Shipping, 1906
Advisory Committee on Labor Exchanges, 1909
District Trade Committees, 1909
Advisory Committee on Pilotage, 1913
Advisory Committee for Coal and the Coal Industry, 1920
Advisory Committee for Metalliferous Mining and Quarrying Industry, 1920
Dyestuffs Industry Development Committee and Dyestuffs Licensing Advisory Committee of 1920 were amalgamated into Dyestuffs Advisory Committee, 1934
Advisory Committee on Overseas Trade of 1920, replaced by Advisory Committee on Export Guarantees, 1937
Importation of Plumage Advisory Committee, 1921
Safeguarding of Industries Committee, 1921
Advisory Committee on Merchandise Marks, 1926
Advisory Committee on Cinematograph Films, 1927, replaced by Cinematograph Films Council, 1938
National and District Coal Mines Committees of Investigation, 1930
Ships Replacement Committee, 1935
Tramp Shipping Subsidy Committee, 1935
Advisory Committee to the Cotton Spindles Board, 1936
Ministry of Transport
Advisory Committees from Panel of Experts, 1919
Rates Advisory Committee, 1919
Electricity Advisory Committee, 1919
Roads Advisory Committee, 1919, replaced by Transport Advisory Council, 1933
Tramways Advisory Committee, 1920
London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee, 1924; 1933 Treasury
Advisory Committee to the Development Commissioners, 1909
Import Duties Advisory Committee, 1932
3 How Britain Is Governed (New York, 1933), p. 64.
4 Grammar of Politics (New Haven, 1925), p. 384.
5 25 and 26 Geo. 5, c. 32.
6 The Transport Advisory Council (23 and 24 Geo. 5, c. 53) serves as an example. The Council gives advice and assistance to the Minister of Transport in relation to the means and facilities of transport. The composition of the advisory council reflects precisely the group of people “for whose benefit the service is rendered,” i.e., local authorities, users of mechanically propelled vehicles, users of horse drawn vehicles, pedestrians, pedal cyclists, representatives of railways, canals, coastwise shipping, and harbors and docks; also labor and trading interests, and agriculture. Each of these groups is enabled through the medium of the advisory council to bring its special opinion on services like roads, railways, and canals to bear on the Ministry of Transport which administers them.
7 10 and 11 Geo. 5, c. 77.
8 For an extended list of possible uses of local advisory committees, see Laski, , Grammar of Politics, p. 384.Google Scholar
9 Other advisory bodies which illustrate this devolution are: County Agricultural Wages Committee, 14 and 15 Geo. 5, c. 37, s. 1; Local Unemployment Insurance Committees, 25 Geo. 5, c. 8, s. 67; Local Scottish Housing Advisory Boards, 25 and 26 Geo. 5, c. 41, s. 22; and Local Advisory Committees for Physical Training and Eecreation, 1 Ed. 8 and 1 Geo. 6, c. 46.
10 For a discussion of advisory committees in the field of social services, see Simey, T. S., Principles of Social Administration (London, 1937), pp. 83–87.Google Scholar
11 16 and 17 Geo. S, c. 53.
12 Delegated Legislation (Cambridge, 1921), pp. 2–3.
13 23 and 24 Geo. 5, c. 25.
14 26 Geo. 5 and 1 Edw. 8, c. 21.
15 Laski, op. cit., p. 387.
16 16 and 17 Geo. 5, c. 53.
17 Ibid., s. 2, ss. (5).
18 Statutory Rules and Orders, 1935, Nos. 148, 149, 305, 519, 682, and 802.
19 9 and 10 Geo. 5, c. 50.
20 Ibid., s. 21, ss. (2)
21 Parl. Deb., Vol. 119 (1919), p. 1575.
22 22 and 23 Geo. 5, c. 8.
23 Parl. Deb., Vol. 261 (1931–32), p. 291 ff.
24 Ibid., p. 718.
25 For a hostile view of the Import Duties Advisory Committee, see Parl. Deb., Vol. 261 (1931–32), p. 303.
26 These statistics were compiled from the indexes to the Government Publications issued by His Majesty's Stationery Office for the years listed.
27 The Advisory Committee on Export Guarantees, 1 Edw. 8 and 1 Geo. 6, c. 61, and the Tramp Shipping Subsidy Advisory Committee, 21 and 22 Geo. 5, c. 39, are examples of committees which must be consulted by the minister before large subsidies can be disbursed.
28 21 and 22 Geo. 5, c. 39.
29 24 and 25 Geo. 5, c. 6.
30 10 and 11 Geo. 5, c. 77.
31 Parl. Papers, Cmd. 4411, Vol. XVI, 1932–33.
32 26 Geo. 5 and 1 Edw. 8, c. Al.
33 Laski, op. cit., p. 384.
34 Parl. Papera, Cmd. 554, Vol. XI, 1920.
35 Of the 10 lay experts on the Aeronautical Research Committee, two represent the aircraft industry, two the Imperial College, and one the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the other five members are men of outstanding scientific attainment in this field. Of the six official members, four are representatives of departments responsible for naval and military aeronautics and regulation of civil aerial transport; and two are from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. This same type of expert personnel is found in such technical bodies as the Poisons Board, 23 and 24 Geo. 5, c. 25, and the Therapeutic Substances Advisory Committee, 14 and 15 Geo. 5, c. 60.
36 1 and 2 Geo. 6, c. 17, s. 41.
37 Differentiation of Curricula between Sexes in Secondary Schools (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923).
38 Minute of the Board of Education, June 17, 1911.
39 25 and 26 Geo. 5, c. 32.
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