B6
and areas of activity are assisted by advisory bodies of one sort or
another, which may be based on the common interests of a particular
locality or industry or deal with a particular area of human concern
or government activity. The major advisory committees in the field
of education are the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee, the
terms of reference of which are given in chapter 3 and. the Board of
Education (discussed in chapter 4).
7.
The civil service provides the staff for all government
departments and other units of the administration. It contains a
large element of labourers, semi-skilled workers and artisans, and
is somewhat unusual in that it does some jobs which in many other
territories and administrations are done by people who do not belong
to the civil service (for example, staff for hospitals, public works
and utilities). This is true also of some professional groups :
for example, teachers employed in government schools, colleges and
technical institutes are all civil servants.
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8.
The Chief Secretary is the Governor's principal adviser on
policy, the chief executive of the government, the head of the civil
service and the chief government spokesman. His office, the Government
Secretariat, co-ordinates and supervises the work of all government
departments. The Financial Secretary is responsible for financial and
economic policy, and for the overall supervision of departments
primarily involved in this field. The Government Secretariat is
organised at present into eight policy branches, two resource branches,