§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON (Manchester, N. E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether it is the case that an ex-soldier or sailor entering the police cannot reckon his term of service in the Army or Navy in any degree towards pension, whereas under the Police Act, 1890, any person who has served as a Civil servant is entitled to reckon such service at the rate of four years as equivalent to three years of police service, the proportion of pension in respect of such service being payable from money provided by Parliament; and (2) if there is any ground of public policy for such inequality of conditions resulting in an 434 ex-soldier or sailor having to serve a greater number of years in the police in order to earn a pension; and, (3) if not, whether Her Majesty's Government will take steps to redress it?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe answer to the first paragraph of the Question is in the affirmative. The case of soldiers and sailors serving in police forces cannot be considered apart from the case of those who are serving in considerable numbers in the Civil Departments of the State. I am informed that the whole question was under consideration recently by the Treasury, but the conditions of combatant and civil service are 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 that Army and Navy pensioners employed in civil service continue to draw their pensions while so employed without deduction.