§ 99. Sir A. HOLBROOKasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he will indicate what attitude is being adopted by His Majesty's Government towards ex-service temporary Civil Service Clerks who in all probability will be thrown out of employment consequent on reductions in the staffs of Government offices; and whether he can give an assurance that no ex-service temporary clerk will be discharged until all positions held by non-service men and women have been filled from among competent ex-service clerks?
Mr. YOUNGIn effecting discharges of temporary personnel, preference for retention is accorded to ex-service men and women, and Departments are required to arrange, wherever possible, for the absorption of ex-service temporary personnel, for whom work is no longer available in one branch, by the discharge of temporary non-service personnel from another. When posts are not available in the same Department every effort is 236 made to place efficient ex-service personnel in temporary posts in other Departments. As regards the latter part of the question I would refer to the answer which I gave to the hon. and gallant Member for Lewisham on the 20th instant.