§ MR. LODER (Brighton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is competent for a watch committee to require additional service in the police force before granting a pension to a constable who has rendered twenty-five years service, but who has, during his service, been punished for disciplinary offence by reduction in class.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) It is difficult to answer a general question such as this. But it will be seen from Section 1 of the Police Act of 1890 that it is twenty five years approved service which entitles a constable to a pension: and by Section 4, under which deductions may be made from a constable's service in respect of sickness, misconduct, or neglect of duty, approved service means such service as may, after such deductions, if any, be certified to have been diligent and faithful. It might therefore happen that the actual service of a constable would have to amount to more than twenty-five years before he became entitled to a pension.