§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that a clerk to an inspector of taxes has been compelled to retire on attaining the age of sixty-two years; is he aware that he served thirty-nine years in the Department, and only received a gratuity of £78 on retirement; and whether, seeing that writers with less service and doing less confidential work, receive £100 gratuity, he will reconsider the case of such clerk with a view to granting him further assistance.
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The hon. Member has stated the facts correctly. The position of the writers referred to is different, because they are directly employed in the public service and are entitled, under a Treasury Minute of 1886, to certain stated gratuities, while the clerks to the inspectors of taxes are in the personal employment of those inspectors, and have, strictly speaking, no claim to any gratuity whatever. I see no reason, therefore, for reconsidering this case.