Catalogue description Admiralty Administrative Whitley Council, Admiralty Industrial Council, and Related Committees: Minutes and Papers

On 13 June 1919 the War Cabinet approved the adoption of the recommendations contained in the Report of the National Provisional Joint Committee on the application of the Whitley Report to the Administrative Departments of the Civil Service. The Report was accepted by a Joint Conference of official representatives and representatives of Staff Associations which met on 3 July 1919 under the chairmanship of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. A model constitution was subsequently drafted and the Treasury issued a directive on 25 August 1919 to Departments recommending the creation of departmental councils.

The Admiralty had anticipated the promulgation of the scheme of staff representation on 'Whitley' lines by setting up an Admiralty Staff Conference to consider questions of importance to the staff. The Conference had held its first meeting on 22 January 1919.

A constitution was agreed in August before the Treasury had issued its directive and the Admiralty was asked to revise it in conformity with the model constitution. This was done in December and the constitution was accepted in February 1920. The Admiralty Administrative Whitley Council held its first meeting on 21 October 1919. The Council, although it was in a sense a continuation of the Staff Conference, was nevertheless a different body: the Conference's advisory role was more limited than the deciding function inherent in the Council.

The Council, which had a membership of 23, was intended to secure, by regular discussion between Official representatives and Staff organisations' representatives, the greatest measure of cooperation in all matters affecting the efficiency of the Admiralty and the well-being of its employees. It covered all matters affecting conditions of service of administrative and clerical staffs.

Office and District Committees were established in outports and in the Admiralty with terms of reference similar to the Administrative Council's. The Council was to determine which Establishments were to be included in the jurisdiction of District Committees. Establishments to be included in the jurisdiction of Office Committees were to be determined by the appropriate District Committees where they existed, subject to Council confirmation; where no District Committees existed, the Council itself would decide.