§ MR. YOXALL (Nottingham, W.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that when the class of senior abstractors was formed it was stated in the letter of appointment that the age limit for retirement was sixty-five, and that when the limit of age for entrance was extended specially to sixty it was not contemplated compulsorily to retire efficient men at sixty or sixty-one, he will explain why some writers have recently been appointed abstractors who are over sixty years of age.
(Answered by Mr. Victor Cavendish.) I am aware of only three cases in which copyists have received certificates as abstractors after passing the age of sixty. In one case the copyist was nominated before he was sixty, but an accidental delay in the issue of his certificate brought him over that age. In the two other cases the Treasury were not aware that the men were over sixty.