§ SIR FORTESCUE FLANNERY () Yorkshire, ShipleyI beg to ask the 390 Secretary to the Treasury if it has been finally decided that no pension or compassionate allowance shall be made to certain examiners of art in elementary schools whose posts have been abolished; whether these gentlemen, whose service extends from forty years downwards, wore technically "occasional" officials, and therefore subject to no pension; whether, owing to pressure of work, their service was latterly required by the Science and Art Department almost continuously, with the result that, being unable to take up other work at the same time, they have consequently lost their connection and prospects of employment elsewhere; and whether there are analogous precedents in which occasional officials of the Science and Art Department have received recognition from the Treasury on their retirement.
§ MR. HANBURYThe answer to the first and second paragraphs is in the affirmative. As none of these examiners have served in the permanent Civil Service, the Treasury, which must act strictly according to the Superannuation Acts, has no power to grant them compensation allowances or (in other words) pensions on abolition of office. Under the Superannuation Act of 1887 the Treasury has power to award gratuities on abolition of office to persons who have given seven years service and have been required to devote their whole time to their duties. None of these examiners had fulfilled the latter condition. It is the fact that the Treasury have in the past awarded compensation allowances in cases analogous to these, but they have done so under a misapprehension as to their legal powers, and now that the legal position is clear the practice has necessarily been discontinued.