APPENDIX 4
Restructuring of Government Departments
before the 1970 White Paper
Examples
(i) Defence
The Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry
were abolished in 1964, and their functions were transferred to
the Ministry of Defence (which had been created in 1947).
(ii) Social Security
The Ministry of Pensions had been joined
with the Ministry of National Insurance, to form the MPNI In 1953.
In 1966 it was joined with the National Assistance Board, to
form the Ministry of Social Security. In 1968 it was further
joined with the Ministry of Health to become the Department of
Health and Social Security.
(iii) The Post Office
In 1967 a White Paper was published called
The Reorganisation of the Post Office; it proposed that
the Post Office should be freed from day-to-day ministerial control
and encouraged to adopt a more dynamic managerial style in pursuit
of its commercial objectives. In 1969 the Post Office ceased
to be a ministerial department and became a public corporation;
this change reduced the number of civil servants substantially
at a single stroke. The functions which remained when the public
corporation was established became the responsibility of the newly
created (1969) Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
(iv) Miscellaneous
For example, in 1967 Social Survey, formerly
part of the Central Office of Information, became a separate department,
reporting to Treasury ministers. This followed a recommendation
of the Heywood Committee on Social Studies which reported in February
1965.
In 1969, the Department of Economic Affairs
(created in 1964) was abolished, and functions were transferred
to the Treasury, the Board of Trade and to the new Department
of Employment.
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