Reporting to Parliament on the Nationalised Industries
| Author | Raymond Nottage |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1957.tb01188.x |
| Date | 01 June 1957 |
| Published date | 01 June 1957 |
Reporting to parliament on the
Nationalised Industries
By
RAYMOND
NOTTAGE
After surveying the size
atrd
wntent of the Annual Reports of the Boards
of the Nationalised Industries, the Director of the Royal Institute suggests
a
number
of
changes which he considers would improve the usefulness
of
the Reports
to
Parliament.
EARLY
a decade has now passed since the nationalisation of some of the
N
country’s major industries. Parliament is still not satisfied, however,
that it is as fully informed
af
the activities of these industries as
it
should
be, and that it is in a position to judge whether they are being well run or not.
This uncertainty could arise from
two
causes. One, because the
industries have not
so
far been successful in effectively communicating
information to Parliament. The other, because it is difficult to assess the
performance of major industries
in
public ownership. The Annual Reports
which the nationalised industries are required to submit to Ministers, and
which they, in turn, must lay before Parliament, throw up both these questions
in an acute and related form.
The framers
of
the nationalisation statutes
no
doubt expected the
submission of the
Annual
Reports to be one of the principal methods
of
keeping Parliament abreast of the achievements and plans of the great
industries that were being brought into public ownership. Over the past
ten years, many hundreds
of
man-hours and many thousands of pounds
must have been spent in compiling and producing these Reports. But
apparently the Reports submitted have not given Parliament satisfaction.
In
1952 and 1953, Select Committees were appointed “to consider the
present methods by which the House of
Commons
is informed of the affairs
of the Nationalised Industries and to report what changes, having regard
to the provisions laid down by Parliament in the relevant statutes, may be
desirable in these methods.” Two Reports emerged. One concentrated
on
Questions
to
Ministers. The other recommended the establishment of a
Standing Committee of the House
on
the Nationalised Industries. The
following comment, in the Select Committee’s Report to the House of
Commons
on
23rd July, 1953, is the only reference to the
Annual
Reports
:
‘‘
The Nationalised Industries publish voluminous reports, but these
do not completely meet the needs of Parliament or the public, partly
owing to their sheer volume and complexity, and partly because informa-
tion is not necessarily available
on
the matters
on
which it is required
or when
it
is required.”
This,
if
it sums up Parliament’s attitude to the Annual Reports that have
been submitted over the past decade, is not a satisfactory outcome, either
for Parliament
or
for the industries themselves.
What
has
been done to meet these twin evils of
‘‘
sheer volume
”
and
of
‘‘
complexity
”
to which attention was drawn in 1953
?
The following
143
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
table compares the sizes of the Reports and
Annual
Accounts issued for
1951-52,
with those issued during
1956
by the Boards which will come within
the purview of the Select Committee
on
Nationalised Industries,
the
establishment of which was approved by the House of
Commons
on
29th
November,
1956.
TABLE
1
Boards
British European Airways
.
. .. .. ..
British Overseas Airways Corporation
.
.
..
National Coal Board+
..
.. .. ..
Central Electricity Authority
..
..
..
Area Electricity Boards
. . ..
..
..
South
of
Scotland (S.E.)
.
.
.. ..
..
Electricity Boards
(S.W.)
.
.
..
..
..
North
of
Scotland Hydro-Electric Board
,
. ..
The
Gas
Council
.
.
..
.. .. ..
Area Gas Boards
.
.
..
..
..
..
British Transport Commission*
(I)
.. ..
(11)
..
..
*The
N.C.B.
and
the
B.T.C.
now
submit
two
volumes
ead
year,
a
Report
(I)
and
the
Accounts
and
Statistics
(11)
1951-52
pages
105
68
263
27
1
536
30
39
59
169
804
169
252
2,765
-
__
1955-56
pages
88
61
(1)
63
(11)
143
244
632
}
54
71
189
897
88
266
2,796
-
The number of pages placed before Parliament thus remains about
the same in total. The electricity and gas industries have increased the
sizes of their contributions, and have both now passed
the
1,OOO
pages a
year mark, the gas industry by a comfortable margin.
The National
Coal
Board, however, have clearly tried to meet the Select
Committee’s criticism. They have separated the Report from the Accounts
and Statistics, and have made a conscious effort to produce a smaller Report.
In the first paragraph of the Report for
1953
the Board stated
:
‘‘
This Report, like most of its predecessors, is designed
to
do two things
-to give an account of the main happenings in the British coal industry
during the year, and also to bring to public notice particular subjects
of special significance for the industry‘s present or future.
.
. .
This
year, the Board have reduced
the
length of the purely narrative passages
in the hope that
this
change will be
an
advantage.”
The British Transport Commission have halved the size of their Report,
but the volume containing the Accounts and Statistics remains about
the
144
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