§ COLONEL EDWARDSsaid, he -would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether Sub-Inspectors of Factories must be at least twenty-five years of age before being appointed; whether it is true that the new scale of salary to be paid does not give them any annual increase of pay, but requires thirty years of service before the scale of £500 a year is reached, and limits the recipients of £500 a year to two Sub-Inspectors out of twenty; and whether it is true that the allowance for personal expenses when absent from home is only 12s, a night for a Sub-Inspector of Factories, while the same allowance in other Departments is 15s., and in some instance £1 per day; and, if so, why this allowance to Sub-Inspectors of Factories has not been raised to the average standard?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYreplied, that it was required by the Factory Regulations that Sub - Inspectors should be at least twenty-five years of age at the time of their appointment. The new scale of salaries recommended by the Chief-Inspectors, and submitted to the Treasury, would not give an annual increase of pay; but there were five classes, the lowest begining with £300 a year, with an increase at the rate of £50 per annum in each case, after a certain number of years' service, and reaching £500 after thirty years' service. It was true that only two could be at the same time in the highest class. As to the allowance for expenses, Sub-Inspectors received in addition to their travelling expenses, 12s. a day, which was the same allowance as that granted to Inspectors of Mines, and he had no reason to believe that it was insufficient.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, he wished to know, whether the increased scale of salaries has received the recommendation of the two Chief Inspectors?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYbelieved it was adopted on the joint recommendation of the two Chief Inspectors.