HC Deb 31 May 1949 vol 465 cc1932-3
Mr. Glenvil Hall

I beg to move, in page 45, line 29, after "forty-three," to insert: and section (Counting of certain war services for superannuation purposes). This Amendment is in anticipation of the Committee accepting the new Clause to which we shall come presently and, if that is passed, it will enable the man who succeeded in the 1914 and 1915 competitions for the Civil Service, but did not take up his appointment until after the war because of war service, to count his war service for superannuation. Hon. Members who were on the Standing Committee upstairs will remember that I then promised to consider this. My right hon. and learned Friend has considered it, and we have agreed to accede to the request then made in Committee.

Mr. Peake

I understand that this Amendment paves the way for the new Clause in the name of the Financial Secretary which meets completely the point brought forward during the Committee stage by my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Dodds-Parker). My hon. Friend discovered that there were some 80 or 90 civil servants who, at the call of King and country in 1914 or 1915, having already passed the Civil Service examination, went to the war and, in consequence, lost four or five reckonable years for the purposes of pension. Those civil servants, if they have not already retired, are now approaching the retirement age, they are in the higher ranks of the Civil Service, and I am sure that they will be extremely grateful to the Government for meeting the point brought forward by my hon. Friend, and meeting it in full.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.