HC Deb 18 November 1925 vol 188 cc358-64
27. Mr. BENNETT

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he can give the numbers of the Admiralty staff, headquarters and outports, for October, 1925, as compared with those for July, 1914; and if he can make any statement as to the reasons for the increase?

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

With my hon. Friend's permission, I will circulate a full statement in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Mr. HARMSWORTH

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Admiralty staff is increasing or decreasing at the present time; can he give figures?

Mr. BRIDGEMAN

In view of the use that has been made of some of the figures published, I cannot help feeling that it would be better for the hon. Member to read the full statement.

Viscountess ASTOR

A "Daily Mail" stunt!

The statement promised is as follows:

Criticism of the numbers of the staff of the Admiralty headquarters establishment is usually directed at the disparity between the numbers employed in 1914 and those now required for the maintenance of a smaller Navy.

In July, 1914, the Admiralty headquarters staff was composed of the following:

Naval officers … 152
Civilian administrative technical and clerical staff … l,566
Messengers, cleaners, packers, etc. … 354
Total … 2,072

The corresponding figure for the 1st October, 1925, the latest date for which figures are available, is 3,328, and this number includes the following:

Naval officers … 264
Civilian administrative technical and clerical staff … 2,629
Messengers, cleaners, packers, etc. … 435
Total … 3,328

The staffs of the Admiralty outport establishments on the 1st August, 1914. numbered 3,699. The staffs on 1st October, 1925, numbered 5,240. This increase in Admiralty staffs since 1914 is neither abnormal nor without justification. It is due to similar reasons to those which have led to increases, and in many cases much larger increases, of staff in other State Departments. The justification for the increase has been investigated by outside bodies and of course also by the Treasury, who, before agreeing to the increased staffs in various Departments, made firsthand investigations of the work.

To a large extent the increase is due to the following reasons:

1. Practically every section at the Admiralty was understaffed in 1914. Most of the Departments, and certainly all the more important officers, were working more hours a 'week than any business house would venture to ask of its employés as a regular system, and even then they were unable to get through their work properly. A state of constant over-work was cheerfully accepted when we were in stern competition with Germany, but it is impossible to justify a return to the same conditions now that circumstances are entirely different.

2. There has been a general increase in the work and an elaboration of the machinery of Government which is universal and which affects the Admiralty as well as other Departments. To a large extent the increase is due to new-legislation and to executive decisions of successive Governments which throw new work upon the Department. The following are a few of the headings under which such increased or new work falls:—

3. To carry out the most ordinary clerical or other transaction of the day involves a far larger expenditure of effort than in 1914. The work of preparing pay lists and Income Tax assessments now involves between three and four times the pre-War amount of work. In an ordinary case of the preparation of a superannuation claim, it is necessary for the clerk to make five calculations in place of two in 1914. Again, a specific pay list process in 1914 involved four simple calculations and the writing down of 27 figures; now 12 calculations are necessary and 70 figures have to be written down. In pre-War days, decisions on routine matters affecting a seaman's pension were, as a rule, accepted without question. To-day the decisions are disputed and explanations are asked for which result in approximately four times as much correspondence from the individuals concerned as in 1914. Again, the policy of greater Treasury control over expenditure involves much more correspondence and discussion on many more matters and in much greater detail than would have been the case before the War.

The policy of closer and more sympathetic handling of questions concerning the lower deck and industrial staffs has also had a similar effect on Admiralty work. Labour questions which were dealt with in a patriarchal manner in 1914 and were the work of practically one man, now have to be dealt with on principles and by means of machinery laid down centrally for the whole Service and have necessitated the setting up of an entirely new branch. Again, in 1914 there was no welfare machinery for the lower deck. Since the War a regular machinery has been established enabling the lower deck periodically to discuss and bring to notice matters affecting their well-being. "Vocational training" has been introduced to enable men who wish to do so to learn a civilian trade before leaving the Service. The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust has been created to centralise the administration (as far as possible by the men themselves) of funds at the disposal of the Navy for benevolent purposes. All these activities have to be carefully guided from the Admiralty, and involve an increase of administrative work.

4. The Naval technical and professional staff is greater, and justifiably greater, than in 1914. Then, only the nucleus of the Naval staff had been created. The present Naval staff numbers 126 as compared with 255 on the Imperial General Staff. Can it be contended that a Naval staff is only little less than half the size of the Imperial General Staff is an extravagance or that it is possible or desirable to return to the 1914 state of things? The functioning of the bigger Naval staff necessarily entails an increase of civilian staff in many other Departments.

5. There have been a substantial development of material and changes in methods of Naval warfare. Measured in terms of capital ship strength and personnel borne, the British Navy of to-day is smaller than the Navy of 1914; but the intensive application of scientific discoveries to Naval material results in increased complexity and entails increased staffs in practically every Department, for these complexities do not affect the technical staffs alone. As a rough indication of the degree of increased complexity of material, it may be mentioned that the list of Naval stores in 1914 comprised about 33,000 items as compared with 76,000 to-day. Again, our latest cruiser possesses a greater mileage of electrical wiring than our greatest pre-War battleship.

The Department dealing with guns, ammunition, torpedoes and mines is nearly two and a-half times larger than in 1914. It was precisely in respect of these weapons that the Navy found itself seriously handicapped during the greater part of the War, and had to remedy its deficiencies at enormous cost of money and life. No one can deny that this state of things would never have existed if those Departments had been more adequately manned in time of peace.

The Fleet has become oil-burning instead of coal-burning. Formerly our fuel reserves existed chiefly in the coal mines of South Wales, and we could use for naval purposes the magnificient service of coaling stations and colliers built up by the coal industry of this country for the purposes of its world trade. Now we must obtain our fuel from widely scattered and chiefly foreign sources, must provide our own fuelling stations, keep our own reserves, and maintain our own tanker fleet for carrying our oil. The change has thrown a very large additional administrative burden on the Departments dealing with the naval fuel supply.

6. A different kind of change of machinery, making for efficiency but largely adding to staff, is the general use of shorthand typists in the Service. In 1914 there were only 10 shorthand-typists in the Admiralty. No one surely would now contend that the Admiralty could or should return to that state of things.

7. The staff includes a steadily declining proportion of temporary staff still dealing with the liquidation of work arising entirely out of the late War. This includes the issue of outstanding sums for a considerable amount in prize money and about 160,000 war medals and the settlement of involved financial transactions.

8. Before the War the Admiralty possessed the services of one qualified chartered accountant only, whilst the Technical Costings Section did not exist. No large commercial undertaking could now exist without an expert staff to carry out these essential duties, and the employment of this staff at the Admiralty is saving, and cannot fail to continue to save, far more than their cost.

It may be stated that during one period of 12 months the Admiralty have, in settling war claims put in by Admiralty contractors, effected a reduction of these claims by no less than £2,900,000. This demonstrates that an efficient and sufficient staff does much more than pay for itself.

9. The number of pensions to be paid has increased from approximately 66,000 in 1914 to 83,000 now.

10. As a result of the war, stability has hardly been reached as regards prices, and store contracts are much more varied and complex than they used to be.

11. The increased number of buildings for the housing of staff has necessitated an increase in the numbers of the messengers and cleaning staff.

12. The institution of the Admiralty Chart Establishment has thrown on to the Admiralty staff work which was previously done by contractors. The economy effected far outweighs the increased cost of staff.

13. The technical staff employed upon the compilation of Admiralty navigational charts has been increased by about 150 per cent., but this is fully justified by the need of overtaking the arrears which accumulated during the War when the staff was employed upon war work. Were this not done, the high reputation which British charts bear all over the world would inevitably suffer. The charts produced are required not only for the Navy but for the Mercantile Marine, and brought to the credit of Navy Votes a sum of £56,500 in 1924 as compared with £41,000 in 1913.

The following detailed analysis of the increase in staff of the Accountant-General's Department (the largest Department in the Admiralty) is instructive:

Present numbers … 667
Comparable pre-War figures … 424
Increase … 243

This increase of 243 is made up as follows:

Employed on the issue of war medals and prize money … 44
New staff employed on lower deck marriage allowance, which did not exist before the War, and the increased staff due to the weekly payment of allotments which before the War were only paid monthly … 97
Increased staff required to deal with (a) naval officers' pay and retired pay and civil employés' salaries, etc., which involve greatly increased work owing to the system of changing pay and pensions according to the cost of living, (b) extra work arising from the introduction of unemployed pay for naval officers and the greater complexity in the calculation and collection of Income Tax from both naval and civil staff, etc. … 47
Increased staff due to the increase of the number of naval pensions from 56,000 in 1914 to nearly 83,000 now. The Pensions Increase Act and the extension of the principle of commutation to seamen's pensions have also added to the work … 15
Increased staff to deal with contractors' claims, which are far more complex than before the War … 15
Increased staff to cope with extra work in all other branches … 25
243

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