HC Deb 16 July 1959 vol 609 cc586-7
64. Mr. Janner

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to receive the report of the Departmental Committee appointed to examine all aspects of the work of the probation service, and whether he will propose to the Committee that on the conclusion of its examination of all the other matters involved, but before making its final report, it will also investigate appropriate conditions and scales of salaries for the probation service to ensure an adequate number of new entrants into the service.

Mr. R. A. Butler

The Committee has just begun its inquiry and I cannot forecast when its report will be ready. Its terms of reference, which I announced in reply to a Question by the hon. Member on 16th April, include pay and conditions of service and the recruitment of probation officers, and the hon.

Member can rest assured that it will investigate these matters before it reports.

Mr. Janner

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider asking for an interim report in respect of salaries and other such matters so that some action could be taken to clear up the present position in which there are so many difficulties in the probation service?

Mr. Butler

I did reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Billericay (Mr. Body) on 12th June on this subject, when I said that the Committee had newly embarked upon its inquiry and I did not think that it would be right to ask it to make a report about salaries before it had completed its examination of the many other matters embraced in its terms of reference.