§ MR. CROOKS (Woolwich)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that women typists, Customs boatmen, clerks taken over in 1889 from the Submarine Telegraph Company, and certain other classes of civil servants, are allowed, under Clause 3 of The Superannuation Act, 1887, to count towards pension the whole of their temporary service which preceded 840 established service, and that in the case of retirement of abstractors of the senior grade a similar concession has in every instance been withheld, only half of their temporary service being allowed to count towards pension, he will make arrangements whereby the members of the abstractor class shall in future be accorded equal treatment in the matter of superannuation with that of other grades whose unestablished service is allowed to count in full.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) In exercising the discretion entrusted to the Treasury by Section 3 of The Superannuation Act, 1887, with respect to the reckoning of temporary service for pension, regard is had to the character and conditions of the service rendered. Each case or class of cases must therefore be considered on its merits. The temporary service of the abstractors referred to in the Question was rendered in the capacity of copyists, and the regulations governing their employment expressly stated that no service in this capacity, however prolonged, would confer any claim to superannuation. It was found, however, at the time when these temporary copyists were first promoted to be abstractors that a portion of their work had in many cases been above the level of what was ordinarily required of copyists; and it was accordingly decided, as part of the terms on which they were placed on the establishment, that half of their service as copyists should be allowed to reckon for pension. I see no reason for extending this concession.