§ MR. CORNWALLIS (Maidstone)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take into his favourable consideration the increase of the pension of A. Searle, a retired warder, taken over from the county service in her Majesty's prison at Maid-stone, from £43 1s., its present amount, to £61 10s. 8d., the amount equivalent to two-thirds of his pay and emoluments on retirement, a rate of pension which was formerly enjoyed by county prison officers in the county of Kent, as in most other counties, after twenty years' service, and which was guaranteed to them by the; Act of 1877; and whether he will introduce legislation if necessary, at an early date to ensure to all old county prison officers the rate of pension which was in force when they joined the prison service.
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThe rate of pensions is fixed by the Treasury and not by the Home Office. The practice which has obtained in late years by which the pensions of ex-local prison officials have been supplemented by the local authorities has been disturbed by the decision of an auditor of the Local Government Board, and until I have received an answer from that Department on this point, I cannot decide what course should be pursued.