HC Deb 12 March 1940 vol 358 cc1001-2
51. Mr. Jagger

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that Lord Hankey's Civil Service pension is considered as deferred pay and can, therefore, be drawn at the same time as his salary as a Cabinet Minister, he will reconsider the treatment accorded to retired civil servants who have returned to the Civil Service at the request of their Departments for the period of the war and whose remuneration is abated by the amount of their pension?

Captain Crookshank

The case of a pensioned civil servant who is re-employed in the Civil Service is governed by Section 20 of the Superannuation Act, 1834, and there is no power to exempt him from the operation of that Section, subject to which his pension was granted. The above Section has no application to the case of a pensioned civil servant who subsequently becomes a Minister of the Crown, for, of course, the position of a political Minister is not that of employment in the Civil Service.

Mr. Jagger

Is it impossible to give any further justification for this differentiation between the geese and the ganders?

Mr. Herbert Morrison

Does not the Minister think, in view of what is done in the case of a civil servant, whose pension is merged in his salary—as to which I do not argue—that for a politician, a public representative and a public man in these circumstances to take the pension and the salary is a little lacking in taste and ought not to be sanctioned by the Treasury?

Captain Crookshank

The right hon. Gentleman is asking me my opinion on matters of taste, which is not what I am here to give. I am here to answer questions of fact, and I have explained what the position is. I may say that this is by no means the first case of the kind which has occurred and that the usual practice has been followed.

Mr. Morrison

Does not the right hon. and gallant Gentleman think that it is the duty of the Treasury, on grounds of public policy and decency, to see that a Minister of the Crown is not treated better than an ordinary civil servant in these matters?

Captain Crookshank

I explained in the answer I have given that it is an entirely different case. The case of a civil servant who is brought back is covered by the Superannuation Act, 1834, which neither the Treasury nor I can modify. The case of a retired civil servant who takes a political post is quite different from that of a civil servant being re-absorbed into the Civil Service.

Commander Locker-Lampson

Is not Lord Hankey worth much more than he is getting?