§ 25. Mr. ALBION RICHARDSONasked the Minister of National Service whether men liable to military service are entitled to be graded by a medical board before being called up; and whether in some cases the Ministry have refused to allow men to be graded who have been previously classified in one of the old medical categories?
§ The MINISTER of NATIONAL SERVICE (Sir Auckland Geddes)The instructions provide that no man is to be posted for service unless he has been graded by a National Service Medical Board. I am not aware of any instance of refusal to allow a man to be graded before being posted for service who had been previously classified in one of the old medical categories; such a refusal would be in direct conflict with the instructions issued by this Ministry. I may add that any such refusal would give the man an automatic right to apply to the Appeal Tribunal for examination by the medical assessors of the Local Government Board.
31. Mr. BOWER MANasked whether men under forty-one in Grade 2 and men over twenty-one in Grade 1 are regarded as practically of the same military value; if so, whether he is aware that tribunals state that they cannot exempt a man over forty-one because he is in Grade 1, while at the same time they exempt a man of thirty-five because he is in Grade 2; whether he is aware that there are men over forty-one in Grades 1 and 2, respectively, who have been warned to join the Colours, while men under forty-one in Grade 2 are being left; and whether any action can and will be taken to redress this apparent inequality?
§ Sir A. GEDDESI am afraid that I do not quite follow the first part of the right hon. Member's question. Men under forty-one in Grade 2 are men physically below the full normal standard of health 20 for their age. Men over twenty-one in Grade 1 are of the full normal standard of health for their age. With regard to the latter part of the question, a man's value in civil life is not in direct relation to his age, but so far as liability for military service is governed by administrative action the right hon. Member is aware that in the Royal Proclamations, the Decertification Orders, and the withdrawal of administrtive protection certificates, the principle has been consistently followed of raising the ages in the particular occupations by age blocks from the younger ages upwards.