§ MR. T. DAVIES (Fulham)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in reckoning service for pension in the case of senior assistant clerks (abstractor class), members of that grade who on appointment to the permanent establishment had previously served for twenty years in the capacity of writers or copyists, are subjected to a deduction of ten years, while members of the same grade who had served in a like capacity for only ten years are, on receiving a similar appointment, subjected to a deduction of only five years; and, if so, will he cause the regulations governing those men's superannuation to be amended so as to adjust this unequal treatment of members of the same class in His Majesty's Civil Service.
(Answered by Mr. M'Kenna.) It is a fact that copyists or writers, who of recent years have been placed on the permanent establishment, are allowed to count one-half of their previous service for pension, although the regulations governing that service expressly stated that it would not confer any claim to superannuation. The reasons for this concession were explained in the Answer, which I circulated with the Votes, to a Question by the hon. Member for Woolwich, on the 26th March last.† I do not see any justification for extending it.