§ 74. Sir BERTRAM FALLEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the regulations governing the award of disability pensions to petty officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the Royal Navy, His Majesty's Army, and the Royal Air Force only provide for the degree of disablement being assessed for all men on a comparison with a normal healthy man of the same age without reference to particular trades or any other circumstances; and whether, in view of the hardship which this inflicts upon skilled 1130 tradesmen when seeking employment in civil life, the basis of assumption will be altered to comparison with a similar craftsman?
§ Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the second in the negative. The present basis is regarded as the most equitable, as well as the most practical, method of assessing disability in the circumstances presenting themselves in the Navy, Army, and Air Force. I might add that it was originally adopted as a result of War experience and in deference to representations made on behalf of disabled ex-service men.