MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the warders, some retired and some still serving in Maidstone prison, who were in the prison service when the control of the prisons was taken over by the Home Office from the county authorities, were guaranteed by agreement that they would, when retiring, receive a pension equal to two-thirds of their salaries; whether this arrangement was kept in the cases of all old service officers who retired up to two years ago, when MR. Bishop was given a pension of £61 10s. for twenty-five years service; was the arrangement departed from one year ago when MR. Searle, who had twenty-six years service, and received only £43 pension; whether he is aware that MR. Broderick, who has served over twenty-four years in the prison service and twenty-one years in the Army, is about retiring, and is only to be allowed £36 10s. 4d.; can he say why these officers should not be paid according to the agreement and on the scale given to the other officers; and will he see that MR. Searle and MR. Broderick and all remaining old officers in Maidstone are pensioned at the higher rate.
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSThere was no agreement such as is suggested in the question. There are considerable legal difficulties affecting these and similar cases, and the whole question is now under the consideration of the Departments concerned.