§ MR. TIMOTHY DAVIES (Fulham)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether there are any recent instances in which the Treasury have withheld their sanction to the recommendations from responsible heads of departments for the promotion, on the ground of special fitness and merit, of certain of their senior assistant clerks (abstractor class) to the Second Division; and, if so, whether he can state the number of such cases; and whether, having regard to the fact that the senior assistant clerks are men of long service and experience to their several departments, 841 and that they are at present penalised in the matter of superannuation, to the extent of half their early temporary service being disallowed towards pension, he will see that Treasury sanction to their promotion, when specially recommended by their responsible chiefs, shall not be refused to them.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) I can only trace, since the beginning of 1904, one case (affecting two assistant clerks) in which the recommendation of the head of the department has not been approved by the Treasury. It would not be possible to give a general pledge that all such recommendations shall be approved, as the Treasury has necessarily to exercise a discretion in dealing with the recommendations of heads of departments under Clause 15 of the Order in Council of 29th November, 1898.