§ 57. Sir Percy Hurdasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, how many men and women up to and including 40 years of age, in the various Government departments, have been released for war service since the Report of the Kennett Committee; and how many remain in the Departments?
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Captain Crookshank)Figures of the number of Civil servants under the age of 41 are not available, and it is therefore impossible to say how many such have been released, or how many remain. The most recent statistics show that during the period 1st July to 1st October of this year the number of non-industrial Civil servants serving with His Majesty's Forces or in Civil Defence increased by 4,737, and of these 4,712 were men.
§ Sir P. HurdDoes the right hon. and gallant Gentleman recall that a month ago he told me that the Government regarded it as an urgent matter?
§ Captain CrookshankIt is being pursued most actively. I should have thought that the figures would be satisfactory from the point of view that my hon. Friend expresses.
§ Sir P. HurdThe right hon. and gallant Gentleman cannot give me the figures that I ask for.