§ MR. H. B. SHERIDANsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether police constables stationed at Government Departments are paid 1s. extra per day, in order to secure the services of the most respectable men in the force; whether some of the staff of officers required for the Houses of Parliament are excluded from this payment during the Recess, whilst in all other Departments payment has been made since April 1867; whether constables receiving this extra 1s. per day for special services are prohibited from contributing the ordinary amount to the pension fund; and, whether 2s. per diem is deducted from the wages of the police serving in this House in case of sudden illness?
MR. BRUCEsaid, in reply to the first Question of the hon. Member, that it was the fact that the police constables to whom it referred were selected on account of their being respectable men, and because of the responsible nature of the duties which they had to perform. The allowance was voluntarily paid by the Department in all cases, it being in excess of the ordinary regulated charges for the service of police. In answer to 1664 the second Question, he had to state that some of the officers employed in the Houses of Parliament had been excluded from the allowance during the Recess, owing to the lighter nature of the duties during that period. The number employed was thirty-seven, and out of that number fifteen had received the extra allowance of Is. a day. Those numbers did not include policemen employed on the night watch to prevent fire. The expenses or cost of police employed at the Houses of Parliament was greatly in excess of the sum annually granted by Parliament. The actual cost of the police employed was £3,983 9s., out of which amount Parliament contributed only £429, the balance of £3,554 being paid out of the Metropolitan Police Fund. In answer to the third Question, he had to say that, by the regulations, constables received the amount of the extra allowance beyond the ordinary pay of the class to which they belonged only when they performed special duty. They were placed under stoppages for the superannuation fund, calculated on the actual pay of the class to which they belonged, and not upon the extra allowance. 1s. per day only was deducted from the pay of the police who were sick; the 1s. extra allowance was given to the man who actually performed the duty in the place of the sick man. During his illness, he consequently suffered a reduction of 2s.s a day.