§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House the proceedings of, and evidence taken by, the Committee which sat from last October onwards, to consider the Police Superannuation question?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS,) Birmingham, E.The proceedings of the Departmental Committee were suspended, and the evidence taken by them was not completed; but, such as it is, I have no objection to lay it before the House if there is any general desire to see it, or before any Committee that may have to consider the Bill.
§ DR. CLARK (Caithness)Was there any evidence taken with regard to Scotland?
§ MR. MATTHEWSNo, Sir.
§ MR. HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, having regard to the fact that, under present arrangements, in many Constabulary forces police are pensioned on two-thirds of their pay after 25 years' faithful service, and also to the small difference between the three-fifths proposed in the Bill and two-thirds, less than £7 upon a salary of £100, or about 3½d. per diem on the pension of a first-class constable, and bearing in mind the years of successive Governments through which these 30,000 deserving public servants have waited for the superannuation scheme and also the very small percentage of constables who last 25 years, Her Majesty's Government can on re-con- 199 sideration consent to the two-thirds pensions after a quarter of a century, without age disqualification?
§ An hon. MEMBER: Before the right hon. Gentleman answers this question I wish to ask if he can state whether it is the intention of the Government to extend this principle of superannuation to other classes of workmen besides the police; and, if not, on what grounds do they propose to tax workmen, who are in the receipt of less wages, for the superannuation of the police?
§ *MR. MATTHEWSI must ask my hon. Friend to allow me to postpone my answer to his question till a later period of the evening, when I move the Second Reading of the Police Superannuation Bill, and when I shall have a better opportunity of fully stating the views of the Government on the point he raises. In reply to the further question, I have to say that the police are the only class to whom the Superannuation Bill will apply.