§ 81. Mr. HARRY LAWSONasked whether the increments of preventive officers are smaller than those of any similar class of officers in the Civil Service; whether they have to wait until they are 1713 fifty years of age before they receive a salary of £150 per annum; whether, notwithstanding the finding of the Holt Committee regarding the abolition of the stripe system, preventive men are still subjected to the indignity of the star allowances; if this system delays the period for reaching the maximum salary until they have served for a period of twenty-five years; and whether preventive men have to wait twenty years before they have an opportunity to qualify for promotion to the grade of preventive officer?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThere are many public servants on similar salaries with equal or smaller increments. A salary of £150 is reached after seven years in the grade irrespective of age. The finding of the Holt Committee had no reference to anything but the stripe system as it was in operation in the Post Office, and the continuance of the system of giving star allowances to preventive men was definitely recommended by the recent Committee on the Waterguard. As regards the fourth part of the question, the maximum salary of 36s. a week is attainable after twelve years' service, though the full number of stars cannot be obtained until after twenty-five. As regards the concluding part of the question, the junior preventive man summoned to the last Departmental examination had served just over eighteen years.