§ 71. Captain RAMAGEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will undertake that in the case of temporary ex-service civil servants who, on becoming redundant in one Department, are transferred to another, the expenses of the transfer shall be borne by the Govern- 244 ment Department concerned or the Treasury, seeing that this is already the practice in the case of permanent civil servants who are thus transferred?
Mr. GRAHAMIt is a general rule of the Civil Service not to pay removal expenses in the case of voluntary transfers of civil servants, i.e., transfers made at the instance of, or in the interests of, the individual. The offer of further temporary employment of temporary Government employés whose previous work has disappeared is usually made in the interests of the officer concerned, and removal expenses can only be paid in those exceptional cases where the transfer can be stated to be primarily in the interests of the Service.
§ Captain RAMAGEDoes the hon. Gentleman suggest that when a civil servant's employment is terminated and the only alternative is to take up some other employment elsewhere that that is a voluntary transfer? Is it not entirely a compulsory transfer?
Mr. GRAHAMNo. I should think the conditions described by the hon. and gallant Gentleman amount, not to a transfer from one service to the other, but to definitely leaving the service for some other occupation.
Lieut.-Colonel Sir F. HALLIn engaging new civil servants, will the Government undertake to give preference to all those ex-service men who have been in the Civil Service for some years?