SIR JACK RAMPTON

Sir Jack Rampton, KCB, Permanent Under - secre tary of State, Department of Energy, 1974-80 , died on March 30 aged 73. He was born on July 10,1920. IT WAS an uncharacteristic episode in the career of Jack Rampton when he suddenly hit the headlines in the au - tumn of 1979 over the payment of excess government grants to North Sea oil companies. Rampton had to apologise to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee for hav - ing ; misled, it over the., pay? ments and about the apparently modest level of disciplinary action "tjtken

agaiiist officials who vyere felt to have broken the rules. "'"' For a week or so the name of this otherwise publicity-shy man was very much in the public domain. But it was the only time that a Whitehall career, otherwise pursued with quiet but resolute tread, ever surfaced in terms of public notoriety. It was also, perhaps, an uncharacteristic slip for Rampton, who as Under-Secretary to the Trea - sury in the Labour adminis - trations of the 1960s, had been noted for the knowledgeable support he gave the Chief Secretary, Jack Diamond, and for watching expenditure like a hawk.

Rampton was the first Per - manent Under-Secretary at the Department of Energy

when it was created, under Lord Carrington in 1974, to cope with the energy crisis that had followed the huge oil price rises instituted by Opec. As such, he let an open but powerful mind range over the whole spectrum of questions which bore upon how energy might cheaply be produced or saved — exploitation of Brit - ain ' s North...