SCHEDULE (Compensation and Superannuation Benefits of Officers). (Hansard, 18 July 1944)

Mr. Hudson
I beg to move, in page 9, line 17, at the end, to insert: or, while not so employed, been engaged in a whole-time capacity in war service or partly engaged in war service and partly employed in local government service. The Schedule, as at present drafted, confers the right to compensation only on a man who has actually been in local government service throughout the war. This Amendment secures compensation for the man who has, for part of the war, been wholly engaged in local government service, or who has returned to local government service by the appointed day. There is a further problem involved, namely, the question of the man who is still on war service on the appointed day. That is a problem that is common to a number of Departments and Ministers and the Government think that we ought not to deal with it in respect of a single Bill. I am authorised to say that we intend to introduce a separate Bill to deal with the position of these men.

§ Sir Joseph Nall (Manchester, Hulme)
The Minister says that he will bring in another Bill, but does that mean that those who are absent on war service will not be prejudiced, will not be in a worse position than those who have not been on war service?

Mr. Hudson
I think that that, broadly speaking, is the situation.

Mr. Hudson
I beg to move, in page 10, line 3, to leave out from the first "Schedule," to the end of paragraph 3, and to insert: subject to the following modifications, that is to say: 156

(a) references in the said Fourth Schedule to a scheme or order shall be construed as references to this Act; and

(b) any period during which a person has been engaged in war service shall be reckoned for the purposes of the said Fourth Schedule as a period of service in his office as therein defined and, where any such period is so reckoned, his emoluments during that period shall, for the purposes of subparagraph (2) of paragraph 4 of the said Schedule, be deemed to be such as he would have received if he had not been engaged in war service."

A similar Amendment to this was moved during the Committee stage of the Food and Drugs Bill and inserted in the Bill and it is intended to bring this paragraph into line with that Bill. Under the Fourth Schedule to the Local Government Act, 1933, which is applied by this paragraph, the provision for assessing compensation provided two alternatives. The basis is either the amount of the emoluments immediately before the material date, or else a five-year average, and the choice rests with the party liable to pay the compensation. It has been suggested, although I doubt whether any local authority would, in fact, do so, that a local authority might cut down the compensation due to a man by selecting the five-year average, claiming that for part of those five years, that is, the war service years, the man received no emolument in respect of that office. The Amendment which I am moving would prevent any local authority doing this, and would give to the men who went to the war the benefit of any cost-of-living bonus awarded to their colleagues who remained at home, and of any increments they would have earned if they had not gone on war service.