HC Deb 21 November 1950 vol 481 cc204-5
58. Sir I. Fraser

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if it is the practice of His Majesty's Government to apply the terms of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act, 1944, or similar terms, to disabled ex-Service men and women in the employment of the foreign and consular and control commission, and similar services.

Mr. Gaitskell

Section 21 of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act restricts its obligations to employment in Great Britain. Government departments conform with this principle and no special arrangements are made to provide employment for disabled persons outside this country.

Sir I. Fraser

Where there is employment for a disabled person in, say, the Consular Service or in Germany at the moment, and a person may come back here or go there again, surely there ought to be continuity, and the spirit of the Act ought to be applied to them?

Mr. Gaitskell

We shall naturally consider sympathetically any cases of that kind. Problems of redundancy are dealt with on well-recognised principles, as the hon. Member knows.