§ 18. Sir George Broadbridgeasked the Minister of Pensions whether he will take steps to remedy the fact that his Department is overstaffed, seeing that the staff admit they have not enough to do, and notwithstanding this they have to stay overtime and receive overtime pay?
§ Sir W. WomersleyI fear my hon. Friend is misinformed, and I should be glad if he would let me know the grounds on which he bases his statement. I am satisfied that my Department is not overstaffed for the new and very varied work which it is doing and, still more, has to be prepared to do. Happily, the war has not so far resulted in the heavy casualties that might have been expected, but to cope with the new work additional staff has obviously been necessary. Rather than rely on a hastily improvised organisation, I have decided that the work of the Ministry is of sufficient importance to require a trained staff. The majority of the staff are new, and as the work steadily increases in volume I have had to work with a margin of staff, a small portion of which at any time is in training. Only by this means can I achieve the primary object which I have set before myself, that of avoiding delay and of securing the utmost promptitude possible in the settlement of cases.