§ 9. Colonel GOODMANasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement regarding the new scheme in the prison service for the promotion of subordinate officers to superior posts, under which scheme the candidates must not exceed the age of 40 years; and whether it is a part of the Home Office policy, in the prison department, that officers should be regarded as too old for the higher ranks when they have passed this comparatively early age?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir John Gilmour)There appears to be some misunderstanding as to the scope and purpose of the scheme to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers. The scheme provides for six subordinate prison 534 officers to be chosen every other year for a special course of nine months' training, and the object is to afford officers who show exceptional ability in the earlier years of their service an opportunity of being trained for accelerated promotion or for special posts outside the normal avenues of promotion. It was for this reason that an age limit of 40 was fixed. Officers not selected for special training under the scheme will still continue to be considered for promotion in the ordinary course. I should add that the scheme is an experimental one, and that the results of the experiment will be closely watched.