§ 53. Mr. ANSTRUTHER-GRAYasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction among the store warders in the Scottish prison service over the official refusal to assimilate them in the general clerical class of the civil servants on similar lines to their colleagues in the English prison service; what is the reason for this dif ferential treatment; and whether he will concede to these store warders the privilege conceded to their colleagues in Eng land of the right of appeal to the Indus trial Court?
§ Sir F. THOMSON (Treasurer of the Household)My right hon. Friend has carefully considered a petition by the store warders in the Scottish prisons for assimilation, like the clerks in the English prisons, into the General Clerical Class of the Civil Service; but such assimilation would not, in his view, be warranted as the store warders, unlike the clerks referred to, are a uniformed discipline grade whose duties include the handling of stores and the control of prison labour. As regards the last part of the question, the scope of the Indus trial Court—open to certain classes represented by the National Whitley Council for the Administrative and Legal Departments of the Civil Service—does not extend to discipline grades either in the English or Scottish prison services.