§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON (Manchester, N. E.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether Her Majesty's, Government will bring in a Bill to amend Section 14 of Act 53 and 54 Vic, ch. 45, whereby it is provided that when a person has served as a Civil Servant within the meaning of the Superannuation Act, 1887, and also in a police force, whether paid out of the police fund or out of money provided by Parliament, he shall be entitled to reckon his entire period of service in both capacities for the purpose of pension, the portion applicable to his civil service being payable from money provided by Parliament, so as to extend the foregoing advantages to persons serving in the police who have previously served in Her Majesty's Naval or Military forces?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe Amendment of the Act of 1890, relating as it does entirely to Police, is a matter rather for the Home Office than for the Treasury. The conditions of combatant and Civil Service are, of course, so different that a scheme for pension on combined service would be difficult to devise even if it were considered desirable. It must be remembered, too, that Army and Navy pensioners employed in Civil Service continue to draw their pensions while so employed without deduction, which is not the case with civilians. The number of civilians who now avail themselves of the privilege conferred by the Act of 1890 is, I am informed, very small. It is very doubtful how far it is wise to further break down the rule which limits the payment of Imperial funds towards pensions for Imperial services and not local services such as those of the police, and if soldiers and civilians were to be put on a precisely similar footing in that respect, it would probably destroy the special privileges which I have already mentioned of the most deserving of all soldiers—the pensioners.