§ 5. Mr. HAYESasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can estimate the cost of extending the 1826 police widows' pension scheme to include the pensioners of before September, 1918, in respect of wives who were married during the time the husbands were serving; and will he state how many pensioners there are in this class to the last convenient date?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir William Joynson-Hicks)No returns of the number of pre-1918 widows are available, but an estimate made in 1927 gives the number of widows of ex-policemen in England and Wales pensioned before 1st September, 1918, as about 8,000. In addition, there would be probably about 2,000 widows of men who died in the force before the date mentioned and had no pensions. The cost of granting a pension of £30 per annum in all these cases would thus have been about £300,000 per annum in 1927 and would no doubt be slightly less to-day. The number of Metropolitan Police pensioners now living who were granted their pensions before 1st September, 1918, is about 4,700 and many of these will no doubt leave widows. I cannot give the figures for the other forces.
§ Mr. HAYESIn order to check the latest figures, will the right hon. Gentleman ask chief officers of police in one or two of the large industrial areas to get information for him, which would be some basis for future calculations?
§ Mr. HANNONMay I support the request made by the hon. Member opposite?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI will select three or four of the big towns or cities and ask the chief constables to give me this information.