§ Mr. MALCOLMasked the Postmaster General whether, pending the finding of the Royal Commission on the methods of entrance and promotion in the Civil Service, he would take steps to ensure that the vacancy for a first-class clerk in the head-quarters office of the engineering department of the Post Office would be filled by the normal method of selection from the second class grade of clerks from within that office?
§ The POSTMASTER - GENERAL (Mr. Herbert Samuel)This matter is now the subject of inquiry. I will communicate later with the hon. Member.
§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Postmaster General what delayed the payment to 1174 officers in the class of assistant engineers of their normal increments of pay which had fallen due during the past four months; what was the cause of the delay in applying the new scale of pay authorised for the class of assistant engineers by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to take effect on and from the 1st July last; and whether he would give instructions that these arrears of pay be paid without further delay?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe adjustment of the salaries in question has been delayed by technical difficulties arising out of the late revision of the engineering department. I trust it will be possible to complete the matter shortly.
§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Postmaster-General, whether, in connection with the recent reorganisation of the engineering department of the Post Office, 32 second class engineers who entered the Post Office service from the universities, and whose average length of service was just over two years, ranging from four and a half years to a few weeks, had been assigned to the new class of assistant engineers, an executive position, over the heads of 112 non-university second class engineers of proved executive and technical ability, with average Post Office service of twenty-two years; whether he would give particulars of the qualifications required for the position of an assistant engineer; the tests the university men were subjected to in order to demonstrate their executive ability; and in what respects they were found to be superior to the 112 other second class engineers whom they passed over?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe new class of assistant engineers comprises those officers of the late second class of engineers, numbering 271, who, in the opinion of the engineer-in-chief possess the qualifications required for the new class. This new class consists of 209 officers, among whom 32 were trained at various universities and 177 were not. All the university officers were successful candidates on their entrance to the Post Office service in a competitive technical examination conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners, the standard of which was much higher than that by which the second class engineers entered. Great care was taken in the selection, but of course if it should be found that in any case there was an error of judgment it will be put right.