§ MR. MOLLOY (King's Co., Birr)On behalf of the hon. Member for the Camborne Division of Cornwall, I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the temporary hired writers, now employed in the Education Office, Whitehall, and the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, who, in many cases, are in receipt of 1s. per hour, are admitted to the discharge of clerical work in the Public Departments without passing any examination through the Civil Service Commission, and simply by private patronage; whether, in some cases, very young men thus introduced are actually earning more money than Civil Service writers of long official experience; and whether he will direct that those who have entered the Civil Service in a regular manner shall be permitted to earn the same money as those who have been privately introduced?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTI am informed that 10 uncertificated persons in the Education Department and one in the Science and Art Department are doing temporary work at 1s. per hour. The rates of pay assigned for such temporary work are regulated by the character of the work, and have no reference to the age or service of the persons entrusted with it. The rate now in question is given because the work is superior to that required of ordinary Civil Service copyists; and I cannot, therefore, give directions in the sense of the last paragraph of the question.