The Origins of the Scottish Development Department, 1943-62

Abstract

In April 1962 the Conservative Government announced the dissolution of the Scottish Home Department and the Department of Health for Scotland. In their place two new departments with different identities were established, the Scottish Home and Health Department and the Scottish Development Department. (Sec the Appendix for the SDD's administrative structure.) At the time the announcement evoked considerable all-party support and was generally welcomed in the press: James Hoy, one of the shadow Labour Scottish spokesmen, and the Labour Lord Provost of Glasgow were approached before the announcement (SRO, SOE 1/267). The Glasgow Herald (16 April 1962) thought the structure of the Scottish Office had become 'untidy' with many new functions allocated almost at random to the existing departments. The Scotsman (16 April 1962) hoped the changes would bring 'a new sense of purpose' into the direction of Scottish business. It was the first substantial alteration to Scottish administration since the 1939 Re-Organisation of Offices (Scotland) Act, which itself followed the recommendation of the official inquiry into Scottish Administration chaired by Sir John Gilmour. Most contemporary commentators attributed the 1962 re-organisation to the publication of the inquiry into the Scottish economy by the Scottish Council (Development and Industry), chaired by J.N. Toothill, the managing director of Fcrranti in Edinburgh, which had been published the previous November (SCDI 1961). Amongst a wide set of recommendations to 'stimulate growth', the inquiry urged the creation of a new Government department to combine the Scottish Secretary's statutory responsibilities for planning (then held within the Department of Health) with his non-statutory function to promote Scottish industry (then held within the Scottish Home Department). It commented: 'we do not think the present