MR. HAYDKN (Leitrim, S.)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will explain why the Board of Inland Revenue decline to re-consider the cases of reduced officers of that Department until two years after the date of their reduction; how long this practice has been a rule of the Board; whether complaints have reached him of hardship arising out of the putting in force of this regulation; and whether, if on inquiry he finds that this rule exists and entails hardships on subordinate officers who may be reduced, he will advise the Board to rescind it, and re-consider the cases of such officers as have lost salary and promotion under its operation?
§ MR. GOSCHENReduction is a punishment reserved for offences of a very serious character indeed. It is clear that if an officer were restored to the position which he hold, and from which he was reduced, after only a short interval, the punishment would not be very severe; nor would there have elapsed a sufficient time for the officer to have retrieved the character he had lost. The Board of Inland Revenue have therefore laid down a rule that no officer who has been reduced can be restored to the rank he has forfeited until two years have elapsed from the time of his reduction. This rule has been in force for some years, and is not considered to inflict any hardship whatever.