§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state how many clerks of the Second Division, lower grade, have been deprived, on grounds other than inefficiency, of promotion to the higher grade on their reaching salaries of £250 per annum; whether any clerks so dealt with have been subsequently employed in the performance of higher grade duties during the time the superior position and pay have been withheld from them; whether the heads of departments periodically review the cases of such clerks with a view of satisfying themselves that their promotion is not being unduly delayed.; and what means exist (if any) under the system of 105 automatic vacancies of promoting such clerks?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Question appears to rest on a misapprehension. There is no right of succession from the lower to the higher grade of the Second Division. As often as a clerk reaches by increments a salary of £250 a promotion is made to the higher grade, hut the Order in Council requires that such promotion must be made on the ground of positive merit, and not seniority. On each occasion the claims of the whole Second Division staff are necessarily reviewed by the head of the Department, with whom, and not with the Treasury, the promotion rests. I am not aware of any case in which a clerk, after being refused advancement to the higher grade, has been required to perform duties peculiar to that Grade.