HC Deb 01 February 1945 vol 407 cc1611-3
28. Mr. Harry Thorneycroft

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the dissatisfaction in the police service due to the injustice of Section 29 of the Police Pensions Act, 1921, and the lack of promotion facilities caused thereby, what action is proposed to ensure that the best type of man will be attracted to, and remain in, the police service in the post-war years.

Mr. H. Morrison

I assume my hon. Friend has in mind the fact that Section 29 (1, a) of the Police Pensions Act, 1921, has the effect that persons who joined the police service on or after 1st July, 1919, are required to serve 30 years before qualifying for a full pension, but I cannot agree that this has had any substantial effect on promotion facilities, particularly having regard to the increased number of higher posts created since 1921. As regards future arrangements, as I explained in answer to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for West Islington (Mr. Montague) on 18th January, proposals for revising the basic pay of the regular police are to be laid before the Police Council at an early date; and an expert committee is now considering certain long-term questions affecting the maintenance and improvement of the efficiency of the police service after the war.

Mr. Thorneycroft

Is not my right hon. Friend aware that at a meeting of the Police Federation in September last a resolution was passed and forwarded to him in which considerable dissatisfaction was expressed at the operation of the Section, and that the service will not be attractive until it has been amended or removed?

Mr. Morrison

Not only am I aware of that, but I have met the Federation on this and other matters and have not felt able to accept their point of view.

Mr. W. J. Brown

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the chief cause of dissatisfaction is that he insists on being judge and jury in every case in which he and the police are concerned?

Mr. Morrison

I do not think the hon. Member is such an authority on the police as he is making out.

Mr. Collindridge

Does the right hon. Gentleman not agree that these conditions are adversely altered from what they were when the men joined; and is it not a fact that in the metropolitan area, altered conditions have prevailed by arrangement between the men and the authorities concerned?

Mr. Morrison

That raises complicated matters but on the whole, in the light of the pensions paid to the police, I do not think that 30 years' service is excessive.

29. Mr. Harry Thorneycroft

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that there is dissatisfaction in the Metropolitan police force; that it is partly due to the stagnation in promotion; and what action is proposed to remedy this state of affairs.

Mr. H. Morrison

For such dissatisfaction as there is in the Metropolitan Police on the question of promotion, the main ground is, I think, not so much the method of promotion adopted as the fact that the number of higher posts available is of necessity insufficient to enable more than a proportion of the qualified men to be promoted. As my hon. Friend will appreciate, it is essential in the interests of efficiency that the best men should be selected for the higher posts, and, whatever method is adopted, there is a likelihood that those passed over will feel a sense of grievance. The present situation is to some extent exceptional, in view of the necessity on man-power grounds to retain in the force a number of officers who might otherwise have retired and the suspension of recruitment since the outbreak of war, and the question is one which will need to be reviewed as a whole in connection with the post-war organisation of the police.

Mr. Thorneycroft

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, if pension rights were restored to officers who joined the force prior to 1921, it would, within the next two years, permit of more than 1,600 promotions?

Mr. Morrison

That may be so, but I have to consider these things on their merits, and in the light of justice to the taxpayer as well as to the police.

Mr. A. Bevan

Will my right hon. Friend inform the Minister of Labour that there are large numbers of young miners who would be delighted to become policemen?