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(d) To administer the Acts and regulations relating to civil aviation, and to exercise the powers conferred on him by the Minister for this purpose. (e) To be responsible to the Air Department' for the preparation and administration of the Budget relating to civil aviation. (/) To exercise executive responsibility for the provision, operation, and maintenance of aerodromes and air route organisation, and to exercise co-ordinating responsibility for technical services rendered by other departments to civil aviation. (g) To exercise the responsibility to Government (through the Air Department) of the head of an attached office (a semiautonomous department or directorate) for the efficient organisation and administration of the Civil Aviation Directorate. 12. We feel it necessary to emphasise that the Director of Civil Aviation should be the adviser of Government on civil aviation matters, and should be consulted. Civil aviation is a complex and highly technical activity, and the Director of Civil Aviation must of necessity, we think, be qualified for his task by his pre-eminence in operational experience, knowledge, and competence, acquired by the exercise of responsibility in this field. The Air Secretary, being an administrative officer of the public service, may have no such specialised qualifications. The responsibility of accepting or rejecting advice rests on Government, and the function of the Air Secretary is to review the advice tendered, from the point of view of the over-all administration of Government and Government's policy. The proper operation of this principle neither precludes direct contact between the Director of Civil Aviation and the Minister or other departments nor excludes the Air Department and the Air Secretary from their proper participation in the framing of policy. 13. The statement of the respective functions of the Air Secretary and the Director of Civil Aviation will need to be developed from time to time, and particularly maintained in conformity with the general principles applicable to all departments of Government and their relationship with any such semi-autonomous departments. We do not, however, think it necessary that all the functions of the Director of Civil Aviation should be defined in detail, except in respect of certain statutory powers and functions to which we refer later in this report (vide Chapter 8, paragraph 112). The smooth and efficient working of a department of Government having certain general supervisory and co-ordinating functions on behalf of Government, in relation to a specialist department or directorate responsible for the development of policy, the detailed administration, and the executive operation of the services provided by that specialist department, depends on understanding co-operation rather than a too close definition of functions and procedure.