§ Sir ALBERT ROLLIT (Islington, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, will he explain for what reason a notice has recently been posted at the Central Telegraph Office stating that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury have decided that the maximum amount of sick leave and ordinary leave combined which an officer may have on full pay in any one year shall be strictly limited to six months, although it has hitherto been the practice to exclude ordinary leave in computing the period during which full pay in sickness is given?
§ * MR. HANBURYThe Civil Service Orders in Council of 1890 allowed a period not exceeding six months' continuous sick-leave on full pay to the upper and second divisions. A Treasury Circular of May 1892, expressed the opinion that the six months on full pay in any one year should include all sick leave and ordinary holidays. In April 1896, the Treasury decided that abstractors and assistant clerks, whose total leave and sick-leave on full pay had been limited to a period not exceeding six weeks, should have that maximum extended to six months. The Post Office thereupon issued the notice referred to in the Question, having apparently omitted hitherto to circulate the Treasury decision of 1892.