§ MR. FREDERICK FRYE (Kensington, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether one of the principal officers of Her Majesty's Prison, Pentonville, is over 70 years of age, and has completed more than 40 years' service, and, if his acceptance of a higher salary, based upon the Government scale of pay on the transfer of the prisons, brings him under the usual regulations governing retirement from the public service; upon what date is it proposed to retire him; and, in view of that fact, that one-fifth and three-fifths respectively of the first and second-class clerks are already at the maximum of their ranks, whether he will recommend the Treasury to enforce Section 36 of the Prisons Act, 1877, and retire the officer referred to and others who come within the provisions of that section, in order that the serious congestion in promotion may be relieved in those other ranks.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. H. H. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.The statement in question as to the age and length of service of this officer is correct. His rights are preserved, as I stated the other day, by Section 35 of the Prisons Act, 1877; his salary remained unaltered, but he has been granted a house allowance which, however, does not bring him within the rules as to retirement which govern the Civil Service. The Treasury has no power under Section 36 of the Prisons Act to compel the retirement of an officer transferred from the Local Service and protected by Section 35.