§ MR. PAUL (Edinburgh, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the attention of the Treasury has been called to the fact that the authorised staff of the Sasine Office, in Edinburgh, has been reduced from 92 to 71 with four temporary clerks; whether extra grants of £800 have been made to the office within the last financial year; whether the salaries of the temporary clerks amount to £320; whether these expenses would be saved by a seven-hour system; and whether, for the sake of economy as well as efficiency, the Treasury will apply that system to the Sasine Office, in accordance with the recommendation of the Ridley Commission?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir J. T. HIBBERT,) OldhamThe staff of the Sasine Office, and the amount of the extra grant during the present year, are, I believe, as stated. The pressure of the work varies greatly at different periods of the year, and much of it requires to be dealt with immediately. For this, among other reasons, I do not think an increase of the regular daily attendance of the staff to seven hours would meet the difficulty, or would be an economical arrangement.