§ MR. KELLEY (Manchester, S.W.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that instructions were issued to surveyors by a previous Postmaster-General stating that retirement at sixty years of age should be enforced upon all Post Office officials in order to assist promotion and secure efficiency; whether he is aware that a superintending official of telegraphs at Manchester has been permitted to remain after this age; and whether he will state what reasons exist for this special treatment.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The circular to surveyors, to which the hon. Member refers, did not make retirement at sixty years of age compulsory. Under the Orders in Council retirement is not compulsory until the age of sixty-five is reached. As I informed the hon. Member in answer to a Question on 15th May last, the rule is that all pensionable officers of whatever grade, whose conduct, capacity, or efficiency falls below a fair standard, are called upon to retire at sixty years of age; but retirement at sixty is not necessarily enforced in the case of officers whose conduct is good, and who are certified by their superior officers to be thoroughly efficient. There has been no exceptional treatment in the case of the supervising officer at Manchester to whom reference is made.