§ 50. Mr. GOLDSTONEasked the Prime Minister, with reference to the appointment, by means of Schedule B of the Order in Council of 10th January, 1910, and without Civil Service certificate, of certain officers late of the National Telephone Company to the second division of the Civil Service, whether there is any precedent for appointment to the second division without Civil Service certificate; whether, as the second division is specially constituted, by Order in Council, of persons certified by the Civil Service Commission, it is competent for the head of a Department to make appointments thereto by means of Schedule B; whether these appointments contravene Clause 22 of the Order in Council of 10th January, 1910; and whether he will consider the desirability of not appointing persons by means of Schedule B to a grade of the Civil Service which is included in Schedule A of the Order of 10th January, 1910?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe position of the officers in question was somewhat exceptional, their claim to pension after transfer having been regulated by the Telephone Transfer Act, 1911. The most convenient way of regularising their appointment to the Civil Service was to gazette their situations into Schedule B of the Order in Council of 10th January, 1910. A notice was issued accordingly in general terms, not limited to the second division, but applying to all the officers so transferred so long as they held the posts in question. I do not think this procedure was inconsistent with the provisions of Clause 22 of the Order.