New Clause.—(FURTHER PROVISIONS AS TO SUPERANNUATION.) (Hansard, 29 January 1958)

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
Subsections (1) and (3) of this proposed Clause are strictly new and did not figure in the Bill as presented last week. Subsection (2) replaces the original language of Clause 3 (6), which we have now deleted, and makes an additional provision. Under subsections (1) and (3), the Secretary of State will be enabled to pay pension contributions in respect of an officer to whom the Measure applies to a pension scheme to which that officer belongs.
It seems to us desirable to have this provision since, if an officer appointed under the Act is already a member of a superannuation scheme, such as the Overseas Superannuation Scheme or of some private scheme such as the Federated Superannuation Scheme for Universities, it might be more convenient in the case of an officer appointed for a temporary period to pay a pension contribution to such a scheme rather than to attempt to make the officer pensionable for a short fine under the terms of the order made under Clause 2 of the Bill or to pay him a gratuity in respect of his temporary service. This is a sensible improvement, and I hope that the Committee will agree to it.
421 I ought also at the same time to explain subsection (2). This contains partly a new provision and is in part in substitution of the words we have just left out of Clause 3 (6). This would enable the Secretary of State to pay pensions or pension contributions in fulfilment of obligations that Her Majesty's Government have entered into in my name under the Special List agreements made with Nigeria. These agreements envisage that an officer who transfers to the special list will remain pensionable under Nigerian laws so long as he serves in Nigeria and also, if we ask it, after he leaves Nigeria and if he is unemployed or in employment which would otherwise be non-pensionable.
We found on further examination that Clause 3 (6) was too tightly drafted, in that it only provided for the payments of pensions and not pension contributions, and only allowed pensions to be paid which were payable under the laws of an overseas territory. This last limitation might get us into a difficulty if, under the special arrangements reached with Nigeria, Special List officers should be exempted from any alteration in the Nigerian pension laws made after the date of their joining the Special List, if those alterations prejudice their pension rights. So the pension payable to them might not, therefore, be in accordance with the law of Nigeria at any one moment.
Furthermore, it is doubtful whether it would be possible for Special List officers who have left Nigeria to be able to fulfil in every detail the provisions of the Nigerian pension legislation in, say, the giving of notice on retirement. Therefore, it seems desirable to empower the Secretary of State to pay such pensions or pension contributions as may appear to him to be appropriate for giving effect to any such arrangements such as a special list agreement.

§ Mr. Wade
May I ask a question on this proposed Clause? Subsection (2) refers to— …persons who are serving or have served as officers to whom this Act applies… I assume this does not give any power to the Secretary of State to improve the position of those who have already retired? I take it that those who have already retired from overseas service are not officers to whom this Act applies"?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
That is so.

§ Mr. Ede (South Shields)
I want to raise a point of constitutional importance in view of what I heard the Secretary of State for the Colonies say while I was in the House before I had to leave to keep an appointment with one of his right hon. Friends. The right hon. Gentleman drew some distinction between "a Secretary of State" and "the Secretary of State", and said that he had put "a Secretary of State" into the Bill to secure a certain purpose. I cannot find "a Secretary of State" in the Bill. It is true that I have read the Bill only cursorily and that this may be there, but it is strange constitutional doctrine to me that any Secretary of State cannot act for any other Secretary of State as and when required to do so. Could the right hon. Gentleman explain the exact situation?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
I am glad of the opportunity to clear up any misunderstanding. I do not wish to draw a distinction between "a" Secretary of State and "the" Secretary of State. The distinction I was trying to draw was between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State for the Colonies. I agree entirely with the right hon. Gentleman that any Secretary of State can act for any other Secretary of State, out we want to go further in this Bill because it may well lead to either the Foreign Secretary or the Commonwealth Secretary having specific responsibilities under the Bill. Therefore, in drafting it we were particularly anxious not to say in the definition Clause that "the Secretary of State" means the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but to leave it that it means the Secretary of State, so that it can be whichever Secretary of State is relevant for the purpose, if I may use that rather clumsy way to describe my colleagues.

§ Mr. Ede
I thank the right hon. Gentleman. Of course the relevant Secretary of State on occasion may be the only Secretary of State in residence in London at the moment.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
That is true.

Mr. Creech Jones
I recognise that this Bill represents in some respects a departure from the normal Treasury practice in connection with overseas service. I appreciate that the Secretary of State must have had a rather strenuous struggle with the Treasury to have secured the measure of agreement indicated by this Bill.
I wish that the Secretary of State had won a more ample victory over the Treasury, because the Bill hardly goes far enough. I hope that as a preliminary to future arrangements within the Overseas Service the right hon. Gentleman will not abandon altogether the register which he proposed in 1954. I hope it will still be possible for younger men, as well as senior men, to register so that they may feel that the utmost elasticity will continue in the Overseas Service and that their remuneration will be covered should their appointment come to an end with the moving of any territory towards independence.
I hope that the Special List now created by the Bill will be more widely applied than is at present contemplated. It is, at the moment, to apply to Nigeria, anti, I gather, to Malaya, but I hope the point will be rapidly reached when the Special List can be made to apply to all the Colonial Territories. I wish to see the transformation of the existing circumstances so that Special List conditions can operate over the whole service. I am moved to that view, because I think it will prove increasingly difficult to maintain the distinction in the Overseas Service between those at present employed in the Service and those transferred to the Special List. As I said earlier, it may create a degree of feeling which would not prove a happy experience for members of the Service. I hope that there will be an increasing application of the Special List so that divisions which may become intensified in the Service can be modified and eventually eliminated.
The increasing needs of the territories for the services of persons with specialist and peculiar experience prompts me to 424 hope that the Secretary of State will make ample use of his powers to second people of such experience from our home Civil Service and from the public services of this country. As these territories emerge into the modern world and conform with the structures and institutions of our modern world, with their different standards of public conduct, it is important that we should contribute the best we can to these territories in the form of special appointments. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be encouraged to make increasing use of the Special List by including in it such persons from our own country who are prepared to make a contribution to the developing life of the territories.
Hon. Members on this side of the House welcome the Bill so far as it goes. In Nigeria, and certainly Malaya, one hopes that the casualties and difficulties experienced in the last few years will be overcome. As I said during the Second Reading debate, this country and our Colonial Service have made an enormous contribution to building up the life of the territories. It would be most unfortunate if, by withholding any contribution which we could make to the administrative framework in these territories, the work of British hands over the last half-century should crumble away. Because I am anxious that as these territories reach independence they should be able to maintain the high standard and fine work done by our Colonial Service, I hope that more and more this Special List arrangement may be operated.
We wish the right hon. Gentleman well in his application of the provisions of the Bill. We hope that he will have a greater feeling of assurance and satisfaction in the days to come, that, because of the initiative taken towards self-government, at least these territories can be safely launched on the road to independence and come to a life which is as good and prosperous for them as is possible.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Creech Jones) for what he has said. He is right in saying that in a number of ways this Bill represents a departure from normal Treasury practice and contains a number of novel conceptions. I think it only chivalrous and 425 fair if I say how grateful I am to the Treasury for the patience and co-operation which has enabled me to introduce this Bill. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that we have no intention of abandoning the central register or the Central Pool. I hope that they will be successful and also, as he said, that the Special List will prove a great success.
I endorse what the right hon. Gentleman said about the value of secondment. I hope that every Government Department, local authority and public body in Britain will not hold the false idea that in some way they are weakening the United Kingdom if they spare some of their valued staff for overseas service. Such a widening of horizons is the only way in which the values we have in the United Kingdom will be preserved. I welcome what has been said by the right hon. Gentleman. In the knowledge that the whole House endorses the principle of this Bill lies its best hope of success.