§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the late Government, shortly before their resignation, sanctioned a reorganisation of the Accountant-General's Department of the Admiralty, under which fifty-eight clerks who obtained their appointments by open competitive examination are displaced, and the appointment of 151 clerks without examination has become vested in the Accountant-General of the Navy; and, seeing that this form of patronage has been strongly condemned by successive Governments, and constitutes a contravention of the Order in Council of June, 1870, under which open competitive examination was laid down as the mode of access to the public service, will he consider the expediency of arranging for schemes of reorganisation of public departments to be laid upon the Table of the House before being put into effect, so that they may come under the scrutiny of Members especially when, as in the present case, they embody important alterations in the formation of the staff.
(Answered by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman.) I can add very little to the Answer given by my hon. friend the Secretary to the Admiralty on May 21st. The figures of my hon. friend are, I believe, substantially correct. The scheme of reorganisation does not, as I understand it, involve any contravention of the Order in Council, which expressly makes provision for such appointments. It would be contrary to precedent and impracticable to lay draft schemes of departmental organisation upon the Table of the House. Every opportunity, of course, is afforded 62 to Members for discussion on the Estimates.