§ 51. Mr. Cooperasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total number of civil servants of all ranks and grades who have been brought before the courts in Great Britain for offences in any way connected with their employment during the last three years.
§ Mr. DaltonThis information could be obtained only at the expense of a disproportionate amount of time and labour, especially in Departments with large regional and local staffs.
§ Mr. CooperIs my right hon. Friend aware that careful analysis of newspaper
§ executive, clerical, typing, technical and scientific and minor and manipulative in June 1939, June 1945 and September 1946, or the nearest convenient date.
§ Mr. DaltonAs the reply contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. OsborneIn view of the great short age of labour in most industries, will the Chancellor take steps to reduce the number of these non-producers employed by Government Departments?
§ Mr. DaltonIt has already been stated that the Government are giving careful attention just now to the desirability of reducing staffs in the aggregate.
§ Following is the reply:
§ reports during the last few years shows a rather serious increase in the number of convictions? Is he further aware that the judges in these cases have made unfavourable comments on the fact that men who already have existing criminal records have been engaged by the Civil Service, and would be undertake to look into this rather serious matter?
§ Mr. DaltonThe one thing I have declined to do is to ask all the staffs in all the Departments to undertake an elaborate piece of research. We want to reduce the staff; we do not want to put upon them a lot of needless research in- 1771 quiries. If my hon. Friend has any particular cases, I will look into them, but a general snoop into past records would in my view be a waste of time of officials.
§ Lieut.-Commander BraithwaiteIn view of the implication contained in this Question, will the right hon. Gentleman make it clear to the House that, so far as the established Civil Service is concerned, there is little or no ground for it?
§ Mr. DaltonI would say that is undoubtedly so, and it is up to my hon. Friend to produce evidence.
§ Mr. CooperWill my right hon. Friend look into the system of recruitment—that is the important point—to prevent this sort of thing happening? The established civil servants are most anxious that this should be cleared up.
§ Mr. DaltonThat is a completely different matter; recruitment does not arise on this Question.