HC Deb 19 October 1944 vol 403 c2530
60. Captain Prescott

asked the Minister of Health what disqualifications and/or disabilities attach to the establishment or promotion of married women doctors either in the local government service or in the Ministry of Health; and whether he will consider the advisability of recommending the removal of such disqualifications and/or disabilities.

Mr. Willink

There is in all Government Departments a ban on the establishment of married women civil servants. This is removable in exceptional cases where it is considered that the efficiency of the Department would suffer by the loss of the officer's services. When a woman doctor in my Department is retained after marriage there is no disqualification as regards promotion. The abolition of the ban in the Ministry of Health is a general service question within the province of the Treasury. There is no statutory bar to the employment by local authorities of married women medical officers but the question is one entirely within the discretion of local authorities and I have no information as to the practice followed by particular authorities. I believe, however, that a similar rule to that in force in the Civil Service is commonly applied in local government service though it has been widely relaxed during the war.

Captain Prescott

Would not my right hon. and learned Friend make recommendations that such restrictions as there are should be removed, in view of the shortage there will be after the war, and also the special suitability of women doctors in certain branches of the service?

Mr. Willink

That, as my answer indicates, is a general question and is within the province of the Treasury.