§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether a second division clerk who attains a salary of, say, £245 a year, and who, after serving at that salary for twelve months, receives the necessary certificate for promotion to the higher grade of second division, is granted a salary of £255 immediately on his admission to that grade; whether a second division clerk, having failed to receive the afore-mentioned certificate on attaining a salary of £250, and having given satisfactory and approved service at that salary for more than twelve months, on being subsequently certified for promotion to the higher grade, after competition with others, is not entitled to an immediate salary of £260 on promotion; and, if not, what is the explanation of the difference in treatment.
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The practice in the second case referred to 1293 follows the usual rule under which an officer appointed or promoted to a class must serve for one year in that class before he can receive his first increment in the class; the clerk is, therefore, not entitled to a salary of £260 until he has given a year's approved service in the higher grade. The clerk referred to in the first part of the Question is exceptionally allowed to enter the higher grade at a salary above the minimum because it would be inequitable that, where a clerk is promoted to the higher grade, without stoppage, on the same day that his increment becomes due, he should receive only a part of an increment, bringing him up to £250, instead of the full increment of £10.