§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, under the system of promoting assistant clerks to Second Division clerkships, as at present administered, it is possible for an assistant clerk who is eligible for this promotion in respect of service, and qualified in the opinion of the head of his department for the higher appointment, to be kept in the assistant clerks' class for an indefinite period, whereas meanwhile assistant clerks in other offices, which are better staffed or in which vacancies occur more frequently, will receive promotion; and whether he will consider some scheme by which combined service and merit will ensure promotion as allowed by the Order in Council, and by which meritorious assistant clerks may not be debarred from promotion by the non-occurrence of casual vacancies in departments to which they are assigned.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) Civil servants must naturally look for promotion principally in the departments to which they are assigned, and the chances of promotion necessarily vary in the several departments. Before the Treasury could entertain a proposal to promote an assistant clerk in one department, on the ground of special merit, to the Second Division, with a view to his assignment to another department, it would be necessary that the heads of the two departments should concur in an application to the Treasury to this end; and until such a case arises I do not think that the Treasury can usefully consider the question.
§ MR. HUNT (Shropshire, Ludlow)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury with reference to the fact that sixty-six new class assistant clerks have been promoted to the Second Division, if he will state the offices in which these promotions have been made, and the respective numbers of such promotions in each office.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I learn from the Civil Service Commissioners that the total number of promotions of assistant clerks (abstractors) of the new 743 class to the Second Division up to the 11th March, 1906, has been as follows:—
| Department. | Number of Promotions. |
| Admiralty | 5 |
| Agriculture and Fisheries, Board of | 2 |
| Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, Department of | 3 |
| Home Office | 2 |
| Inland Revenue | 20 |
| Irish Land Commission | 1 |
| Local Government Board (England) | 2 |
| Local Government Board (Ireland) | 2 |
| Post Office | 21 |
| Public Works Loan Board | 1 |
| Scotch Education Department | 1 |
| Stationery Office | 1 |
| War Office | 5 |
| Total | 66 |