§ 28. Mr. BRIDGEMANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if, considering that the majority of the junior officers of Customs and Excise have not yet received any benefit from the concessions to the Department authorised by the Report of the Amalgamation Committee or payment for insurance duties, he will authorise the acceptance of the recommendation made to the Amalgamation Committee by the Board of Customs and Excise that officers shall be lifted to the salary they would have been receiving had the service scale been in force when they entered the service?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI must refer the hon. Member to my reply to a question put to me by the hon. Member for Tyrone on the 14th instant on this subject.
§ 29. Mr. BRIDGEMANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if, considering the pledge given by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to this House on 18th June, 1908, in connection with the amalgamation of the Customs and Excise Departments, that the rights of no class and, as far as possible, of no individual would be prejudicially affected by the contemplated change, he will explain why surveyors, formerly supervisors of Excise, find all promotion from their grade to the controlling grade stopped; and why this stoppage, which to eligible men means a stoppage at £320 per annum as compared with £500, the minimum salary of the controlling grade, has been permitted.
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEAs regards promotions to the new controlling grade, I must refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Blackburn on the 14th instant, and I may add that further 200 promotions will be made when the process of amalgamation permits. Meanwhile the eligible men instead of being temporarily stopped at £320, as they would have been, under the former conditions of service, have, under the amalgamation scheme, been placed on a scale rising to £450, and when promoted will be placed on a scale of £500 rising to £650, instead of £450 fixed.