§ 12. Mr. William Brownasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is prepared to consider offering established appointments as prison officers to' suitable applicants in order to assist in solving the staffing problem by attracting to these posts persons who would not be willing to accept them on a purely temporary basis?
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Peake)As the hon. Member is aware, recruitment to the Civil Service on a permanent basis has been suspended during the war, one reason for this being that men serving with the Forces should not be deprived of the opportunity at a later stage of obtaining established employment under the State. Owing to the man-power situation, the staffing of the Prison Service creates a difficult problem and I hope that it will be possible to find a satisfactory solution. The particular suggestion made by the hon. Member has received careful consideration, but my right hon. Friend can find no sufficient reason for treating the Prison Service differently from the rest of the Civil Service—particularly as this is a Service which has always relied to a very large extent on recruiting ex-service men of the N.C.O. type.
§ Mr. BrownIs the Minister aware that while his Reply is a very good answer to any suggestion that we should have recruitment to established grades above the basic grade it is no answer at all to a proposition to have recruitment to the basic grade only, and will he look at the matter again in that light?