§ MR. FIELDTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that instructions to pensions officers require that cases in which the officer and the supervisor differ as to a claimant's right to a pension, or in which, owing to special circumstances, the officer and the supervisor are unable to come to a decision, shall be reported to the Board of Inland Revenue for directions before the claim is submitted to a pension committee; whether it is claimed that these regulations were made by the Board of Inland Revenue by virtue of No. 34 of the Treasury Regulations; and whether, seeing that that paragraph only authorised orders, instructions, and directions of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, subject to the provisions of the Act and of these regulations, while the control assumed by the Board of Inland Revenue in the matter is not subject to, but in contravention of the provisions of the Act and the Treasury regulations, he will direct it to be withdrawn.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) I have had before me the confidential instructions to pension officers which have been given by the Board of Inland Revenue, and I am satisfied that the directions which have been given as to the manner in which claims are to be dealt with are in full accordance with the provisions of the Act and the regulations.
§ MR. FIELDTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, seeing that 256 the regulations issued by the Board of Inland Revenue to old-age pension officers have no validity beyond the fact that they are instructions to officers, and that the Board of Inland Revenue's regulations that the supervisor must initial all reports of the pension officer before they are sent to the pension committee can be no possible check on the truthfulness of the evidence or the accuracy of the officer's report, because the supervisor has no knowledge of either, and is, therefore, no safeguard against fraud on either the claimants or the Treasury, he will direct this regulation to be withdrawn and the procedure of the Act and of the Treasury regulations to be carried out.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) The duties of the supervisor in connection with claims are performed by him in his capacity of pension officer for the district in which he has been appointed by the Treasury to act, in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 (4) of the Act and No. 34 of the Regulations. The present procedure is, in my judgment, necessary for the efficient administration of the Act, and does not appear to me to be in any way inconsistent with anything contained either in the Act or in the Regulations.