§ Considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§ MR. STUART WORTLEY (Sheffield, Hallam)in the Chair.
§ Clause 1:
§ MR. CALDWELLsaid that when the prisons were taken over from the local authorities by the State, it was stated in the House that the warders and prison officials would not, by the Act of 1877, be put in a worse position than they were in prior to the passing of that Act. The State was to receive their services, and pay their salaries and pensions when the latter became due. This Bill gave power to the local authorities to pay a proportion of the pension for the period after 1877. On what principle of reason, justice, and common sense could it be said that any portion of the pension earned for services done to the State should be paid by the local authority?
§ MR. RITCHIEsaid the scope of the Bill was extremely limited. When the Government took over the prisons in 1877 there were certain prison officers taken over with them, who then came under the ordinary rule of superannuation. The local authorities had been in the habit of giving these officers rather more than was done under the Superannuation Act, and since 1877 the local authority had in many cases paid these servants the difference between Government superannuation and the pension previously given by the local authority. It had recently been held by the Local Government Board Auditor that the local authorities were exceeding their powers in so doing, and that they were liable to be surcharged. The local authorities therefore asked that the extra payment might be legalised, and the object of the Bill was to carry out that request.
§ Clauses 1 and 2 agreed to. Bill reported without Amendment; read the third time, and passed.