§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to the case of Metropolitan Police Pensioner Charles Taylor, who after serving eight years in the Army, including the Crimean Campaign, did excellent work for 27 and a-half years in the Metropolitan Police, during which time he committed but one disciplinary offence, for which he was duly punished, yet upon claiming his pension on September 15, 1888, with a "very good" certificate of conduct, he found himself further punished for that solitary offence by an annual deduction for life of £2 12s. from his pension, "under a ruling," as he was informed, "of the Secretary of State;" if he can inform the House when, and on what grounds, this principle of double and permanent punishment in respect of one offence was adopted for the Metropolitan Police; and, if, having regard to all the circumstances, it is possible to reconsider both its general and specific application?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)The Regulations for the Metropolitan Police, like those of the Civil Service, provide for a diminution of pension in case the conduct of the officer has not been uniformly satisfactory. For some time there was a ruling that for every offence of drunkenness committed after a certain date there should be a fixed deduction from the pension made at the Home Office. In February, 1887, I expressed 80 my view that each offence of drunkenness should at the time receive such punishment as the Commissioner might consider it to deserve, but that this punishment should carry with it no penal consequence with respect to pensions, unless the Commissioner recommended a reduction when he forwarded the application for pension. In the present instance the late Commissioner recommended that there should be a reduction of 1–30th of the pension. This, however, may have been done under the notion that the former ruling was still imperative. I have referred the case again to the present Commissioner, and he recommends that no deduction should be made. I am, therefore, glad to direct that the full pension shall be paid to this constable.