HC Deb 26 April 1906 vol 156 cc8-9
MR. FIELD) (Dublin, St. Patrick

To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he can state if the 16th Company, Royal Engineers, are still on the survey, or whether they are only being drafted into other companies who are on the survey; whether survey companies of the Royal Engineers, when sent for their annual training to the Curragh Camp, receive full working pay whilst doing military duty there; and, if so, whether their' pay and travelling allowances are taken from the survey grant which is voted for direct survey work on the field.

(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The 16th Company, Royal Engineers, is no longer attached to the Ordnance Survey. Its removal leaves a slight excess (about twenty-four) in the establishment of non - commissioned officers and men for the three remaining companies, and these supernumeraries will be absorbed as vacancies occur. The Royal Engineers receive full working pay from the Ordnance Survey Vote while doing their annual training. Their travelling expenses are defrayed partly from Army Votes and partly from the Vote for the Ordnance Survey.

MR. FIELD

To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that ex-Royal Engineers non-commissioned officers have been made permanent in the Ordnance Survey after being only six months out of the corps and enjoying a military pension, and that instances have occurred where civilians after thirty-three years continuous service have been recommended for discharge without gratuity or pension; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter.

(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) In some few instances ex-Royal Engineers have received permanent appointment, after a few months service as civilians, subsequent to their discharge from the corps with a pension. In almost all cases they continued to fill the same posts as they occupied while serving in the Royal Engineers. No civilians have been discharged after thirty-three years continuous service without gratuity or pension except on the ground of serious misconduct.