§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUsaid, he would now ask the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Police Constables on duty in the Houses of Parliament, Palaces, and Public Buildings have been removed from the first to the third class; and, if so, for what reason; whether Constables who have been in the Force for as long as twenty or thirty years are similarly treated; whether they are prevented from contributing to the extra pension fund; whether their reduction from the first to the third class will affect the amount of the pension which they will receive; and what class of certificate those who have been reduced from the first to the third class will receive for many years' service in the Government Offices and other Public Buildings?
MR. T. G. BARINGsaid, in answer to the first part of the question of the noble Lord, he had to state that all the police constables were of equal rank; but, owing to a recent arrangement which had been made for increasing the pay of the police, they were divided into different classes in respect to pay, and the constables employed in the palaces, the Houses of Parliament, and other public buildings continued to receive the same pay as they had received before that arrangement—namely, a guinea a week. He might observe that these men had originally been in the first class as regarded pay, 1103 but owing to a change made in 1864 they came into the second class, and in consequence of the recent alteration in pay they now stood in the third class. The reason why the Commissioners had thought it unnecessary to increase the pay of the police employed in the palaces and the Houses of Parliament and other public buildings was, that in addition to their pay they received extra allowances, in some cases amounting to seven shillings a week; so that, taking this into account, they were better paid than any other constables, except those employed on special service. Such of the constables as, if elsewhere, would have received a higher pay under the new regulations, have the option of giving up their employment in the Houses of Parliament; but they preferred to remain there and receive this allowance rather than take other duty and get the pay of a higher class. It might be that constables who had been in the force for twenty or thirty years had found themselves in the position which he had just described. He did not quite understand what was meant by that portion of the noble Lord's Question in which he asked whether they were prevented from contributing to the extra pension fund. He presumed, however, that it alluded to a regulation of August, 1864, defining and explaining what extra allowance should, and what extra allowance should not, count in respect of pension. Without going into details, he might say that those who had been paying on the extra allowance continued to do so; but those constables who entered after a certain date were only to be allowed to subscribe to the superannuation fund according to the amount of their pay, and not in respect of extra allowance. The character of the certificate to a police constable did not depend on the class to which he had belonged, but on his conduct; and therefore the change to which the noble Lord referred would not affect the certificate.