§ 4. Mr. van Straubenzeeasked the Secretary of State for Defence why he will not count as reckonable for superannuation the service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers' Association prior to 1st April, 1960, of Mrs. G. M. Edwards and Mr. J. H. Harris, both of Wokingham.
§ Mr. ReynoldsAs I have explained in letters to the hon. Member, it is because before then the Association was financed from regimental, that is to say private funds, whereas by Statute only service remunerated from public funds may be reckoned for a Civil Service superannuation award.
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeWhile acknowledging the Minister's personal efforts and the voluminous correspondence on the point, may I ask him whether he will not accept that it is quite clear, particularly in the case of Mrs. Edwards, that on taking on this post working for the R.E.M.E. Association she had no idea whatever that she was working for a private voluntary organisation and that she would be forgoing her pension rights? Did not the same thing apply to her predecessor? Does not the Minister feel that, inadvertently perhaps, there has been an injustice which ought to be put right?
§ Mr. ReynoldsThe hon. Member's statement is probably correct, and in any event I have no means of disproving the statement that the lady did not realise that she was going to a private organisation when she began that employment. I am, however, absolutely certain that within a very short time of starting it she was aware of the fact that she was not working in Government employment. In the correspondence which I have had with the hon. Member I have given reasons for that.