§ MR. FRASER MACKINTOSHasked the Lord Advocate, Whether clerks of the First, Second, and Third Classes in the Sasine Office, Edinburgh, are employed, irrespective of class, in preparing abridgments of the writs recorded in the Register of Sasines, in superintending the printing of these abridgments, as provided for in the ninth section of "The Land Registers (Scotland) Act, 1868," and in preparing the Search Sheets from which searches are issued to the public; whether the Returns of the work made up daily in each of the six districts into which the Sasine Office is divided show that clerks of the First, Second, and Third Classes are entrusted with and perform work identically the same without respect to class; whether he will order a copy of one of these Returns to be laid upon the Table of the House; and, whether, the remuneration being so different, though the work is identical, he will take steps to abolish the classification, and make the remuneration more equal?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)I am informed that the clerks of the First, Second, and Third Classes in the Sasine Office in Edinburgh are employed upon the same descriptions of work; but that the value of the work of the respective classes is very different, as the experience and acquirements of the First-Class clerks as a class are materially greater than those of the Second Class, while the attainments of the Second-Class clerks are superior to those of the 1535 Third Class. I have no objection to lay on the Table one of the Returns asked for; but I do not think it will give any information beyond what I have stated. The number of First-Class Clerks is 8; the number of the Second Class is 12; and the number of the Third Class is 63. The present arrangements were made in 1881, in conformity with the Report of a Committee appointed by the Home Office and the Treasury. The effect of abolishing the existing classification would be to level down the superior clerks at least as much as to level up the lower clerks. I cannot see any reason for making such a change, and I think the existing arrangements should be maintained.