§ MR. JOHN BURNS (Battersea)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether arrangements have been made to transfer redundant schoolmasters in prisons to the clerical staff; if so, whether the schoolmasters so transferred will be placed at the bottom of the clerical list for purposes of seniority, in order that the clerks, who joined the Department as such, will not have their promotion retarded by such transfer? I will also ask the right hon. Gentleman what is the present number of storekeepers and clerks in the Prison Department who have been rendered redundant by the closing of prisons or reduction of the population in others; to what number will such redundants be increased by the transfer of redundant schoolmasters to the clerical staff; and how it is intended to reduce this number 1596 of redundants, with a view to economy in the Public Service?
§ MR. ASQUITHArrangements are being made under Treasury sanction to employ a few of the redundant convict prison schoolmasters as temporary prison clerks until they can be absorbed as schoolmasters. No arrangement has been made to transfer any schoolmasters to the permanent clerical staff, so that the question of seniority does not arise. I am informed that there are no redundant storekeepers or clerks.