§ 95. Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHYasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if it is proposed to appoint female writing assistants to a small block of work in the Inland Revenue Department, this not being in accordance with 235 the Reorganisation Report of the National Whitley Council; if, in view of the grave hardship to ex-service men, he will suspend appointments to this class for a period of one year, at the end of which time the matter be reconsidered; and will he employ instead those ex-service men who would otherwise be dismissed as redundant, treating the Civil Service as a whole?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hilton Young)Nine writing assistants are at present employed, and have for some time been employed, mainly upon sorting duties in the statistical branch of the Board of Inland Revenue. The employment of these permanent officers upon this work is in accordance with the principles of the Reorganisation Report of the National Whitley Council, and their appointment did not, of course, entail the discharge of any ex-service men. Having regard to the nature of the duties and the qualities required for their performance, I have been unable, after very careful consideration, to approve the extended employment of ex-service men upon routine and mechanical work of this character, to which, as experience has shown, they do not readily take.