Book Reviews
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1962.tb02963.x |
Book
Reviews
The
Department
of
Scientgc
and Industrial Research
By Sir
Harry
Melville. New Whitehall Series
No.
9.
George Allen
&
Unwin
Ltd.,
1962.
Pp.
zoo.
25s.
Sir
Hany
Melville's book gives a clear
and straightforward account of the
history of D.S.I.R. and
its
present
work and organization. Within some
zoo
pages
is
packed information that
would otherwise
be
available only by
persistent search through a multitude
of
annual
reports, white papers and
other documents; and the book
presents it
all
in an interesting and
eminently readable form. The audience
which the author seems to have in
mind
is,
firstly, the rising generation
of
potential recruits to the scientific
staff
of
the Department; and secondly,
students of government who want a
concise and authoritative account of
a
Department of State that represents
a significant constitutional develop-
ment of the present
century.
Both
these audiences are well served.
D.S.I.R. embraces
so
many
activities
that it
is
easier to define
its
scope by
listing those parts of the total field
of potential research which are not
within
D.S.I.R.'s province. These
excluded fields
of
research are mainly
national defence, aviation, atomic
energy, agriculture, health and
medicine, and meteorology. But what
is
left over
is
a sizable empire,
as
is
made very apparent by
this
book.
Before the
1914-18
war the State
played but
a
small part in either
conducting or sponsoring research.
It
is
true
that
such government bodies
as
the
Royal
Observatory,
the
Royal
Mint, the Ordnance Board, the Govern-
ment
Chemist's
Dep-ent.
arid
the
Ordnance Survey undertook specialized
research, but the total effort was small
and was directed towards narrow
objectives. Not until
1915
was there
any adequate realization
of
the crucial
importance
of
industrial research. The
need for
it
then emerged, both for the
short-term objective of filling gaps
left by the closure
of
our access to
research in enemy countries, and for
the long-term objective of ensuring
our survival
as
a major industrial
country.
The response to
this
emerging need
for large-scale government participa-
tion in research makes fascinating
reading. Research is inclined to be an
uncomfortable bedfellow among the
traditional Departments of State, and
the way
it
was brought
within
the
ambit of government while leaving the
research urge unstifled provides yet
one more illustration of the flexibility
of
the British Constitution. The time-
honoured pattern of a Department
staffed by anonymous officials acting
under the authority of a Minister was
recognized
as
not altogether appro-
priate; for few Ministers like to claim
a close acquaintance with science, and
most scientists find stimulus in personal
recognition, by their peers in the
international world of science, of any
creditable results they may achieve.
Yet clearly the new Department had
to be made responsible to Parliament
if,
as
seemed inevitable
in
those days,
it
wim
to
be ostensibly
in
line with
its
Whitehall partners
in
housekeeping for
the
~atio~.
The
starting
point
was
the
time-honoured expedient of vesting
221
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
ministerial responsibility in a com-
mittee of the Privy Council. This
consisted of the holders for the time
being of six ministerial posts, presided
over by the Lord President of the
Council. But, in accordance with
precedent, as the years went on the
reality of this
Privy
Council facade
faded, and
de
facto
responsibility was
taken by the Lord President, This was
given formal recognition in
1959,
when
an Order was made under the Ministers
of the Crown Act,
1946,
creating the
post of Minister for Science, and
vesting in him,
inter
alia,
the respon-
sibilities originally allocated to the
Privy
Council committee.
To deal with the difficulty that most
Ministers disclaim even
a
superficial
knowledge of science
-
or
they did in
the early days
of
D.S.I.R. -a council
of prominent scientists, not within
government service, was interposed
between the Privy Council committee
and the Department. This was made
constitutionally respectable by calling
this council ‘advisory’. But
as
Ministers
would be reluctant to run counter to
the advice of such a council, the
advisory nature of
its
activities tended
to move towards executive respon-
sibilities. In fact, by an Act
of
1956,
formal recognition was given to
this
by replacing the advisory council by
an executive research council.
The organization below the level of
the
Privy
Council committee and
advisory council was initially made to
appear sufficiently orthodox to escape
criticism. There was a civil servant
Permanent Secretary in charge of a
Department of civil servants. But this
orthodoxy was apparent rather than
real. For the civil servants were
recruited
on
a
basis
of
scientific
competence with no concession to the
doctrine that a good degree
in
any
subject
is
an adequate preliminary to
a career in the public service. Further-
more, by the nature of the case many
of
the
staff
were recruited from
academic life and some planned to
return there before their active life
ended. To allow for this, special
222
arrangements were made, and instead
of applying the Superannuation Acts
to the new staff they were given
pension terms interchangeable with
those then current for university staff.
This
was
a striking departure from
standard practice at the time, and
must have been an important factor
in enabling the Department to build
up the staff
of
scientists which made
possible
its
subsequent achievements.
In recent times the easing of the
superannuation arrangements for the
Civil Service as a whole has made
it
practicable to bring the D.S.I.R. staff
within the fold, though they still have
certain privileges which are not enjoyed
by their administrative colleagues;
notably the device for giving special
promotions to brilliant scientists
without regard to the complements of
the various grades.
The present situation, then, is a
curious compromise. The constitution
of D.S.I.R. is something intermediate
between that of a modern nationalized
industry and that
of
an orthodox
government Department. For, sand-
wiched between the Minister and his
civil servant Permanent Secretary, is
an executive research council of
scientists, with short-term appoint-
ments, many of them holding in
addition full-time appointments
outside government service, and all of
them having a primary allegiance to
science rather than to the body of
knowledge and traditions which guide
and inspire public administration.
This arrangement could, it might be
supposed, lead to trouble if the policy
of the Minister became repugnant to a
majority of the council, trouble of a
kind that would not be cured by any
directions which the Minister had
power to give under the Act.
Has
it
done
so?
Melville’s book throws no light on
this. And, indeed, one would not
expect it to.
If
the curtain is to
be
raised to some extent
on
the inner
workings of this Department
it
could
not be done in a book written by its
Permanent Secretary while in office.
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