HC Deb 15 July 1968 vol 768 cc1213-22

11.54 p.m.

Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine (Rye)

It is not very often that we have an opportunity of discussing the problems of the small territories—

Mr. Speaker

Order. Will hon. Members not taking part in the debate leave the Chamber if they do not wish to hear it.

Mr. Godman Irvine

—and on this occasion I think it would not be inappropriate if I took the opportunity of saying how much we in this House appreciate the service which is given by those serving in these small territories. Although we do not have many opportunities of discussing their conditions, or the work they do, I know that many Members greatly appreciate their work.

It came as a surprise to me that the Plowden Report made no reference to Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service. I was under the impression that once the Plowden Report had been accepted all those who were serving in the two different branches of Her Majesty's Service would be enabled to serve in any of the others, but it appears that it was never possible for those who were serving in Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service to transfer to the Home Civil Service, to the Commonwealth Relations Office, or to the Diplomatic Service.

On 27th July, 1967, the Minister made it clear in his reply to one of my Questions that it was not possible for these officers to transfer to the Diplomatic Service, and went on to say that there was a supplementary competition, but the limiting factor about the supplementary competition is that those who are successful in transferring as a result of it receive appointments which are roughly equivalent to those of the people who have just come down from the universities, and this means that those who are, shall we say, aged 35, or are experienced district officers, do not find that a suitable opening for them.

The problem to which I wish to refer tonight is of interest to those who are serving not only throughout the South Pacific, which contains the territories to which I particularly wish to refer, but the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the New Hebrides. I understand that the arrangement with the Fiji Overseas Service ends in December, so this will be a matter of interest to those in Fiji, too. It is, in fact, a matter of interest to those who are serving throughout the world. It is not only a matter for the South Pacific.

It is from my own observations that the points I want to put to the Minister tonight have arisen, because, owing to the loyalty and the inhibitions of the service I have found that those who are working in different parts of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service are particularly silent about the conditions under which they work.

I have put down a series of four Questions to successive Ministers, the first in June, 1967, the last in April, 1968. In the last answer which I received reference was made to the position then being such that there was a breathing space, and the Minister said that very shortly he hoped that he would be able to discuss further proposals with those who were serving abroad. But representations had been made to the Commonwealth Office in August, 1966, and it is 15 months since a staffing mission went to the Solomon Islands to discuss these matters.

I hope, therefore, that tonight the Minister is in a position to give us, if not a complete answer to the problem, at least a definite date when he will be able to bring forward some proposals to deal with the matter. It is important that there should be a definite answer to these problems, because the officers serving abroad want to know what their long-term future is.

It is vital not only to them. It is vital to the territories in which they are serving, and the staffing of these territories. It is vital because some of these people at least feel that there is a lack of interest here in what they are doing, and in their future. Finally, it is vital because there is a loss of first-class men from the service because of this uncertainty which they feel is surrounding them.

There are four difficulties, in particular, to which I should like the Minister to direct his attention. First, officers in the permanent and pensionable Service no longer have any prospect of promotion on transfer to other territories. They see colleagues who happen to have been serving in territories which have received independence getting substantial compensation for loss of their careers and also quick promotion under the new Governments they are serving.

The second difficulty is that there are very limited opportunities for advancement in the territories in which they are still serving. These officers feel considerable aggravation that senior officers come on transfer from other parts of the Commonwealth by appointment on contract to senior posts. Those officers have already been compensated for loss of career. Sometimes other officers come from the home Civil Service and are put in a position superior to some of those in Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service.

The third point is that they face stagnation in their own posts and grave curtailment of their pension prospects, not only because they have no prospect of being promoted or improving their position, but also because of the salary scales available in the smaller and poorer and less advanced territories.

The fourth difficulty is that the officers are immobilised from seeking alternative careers by the loss of pension rights on resignation. They feel that they must, therefore, go on serving where they are, whereas the contract officer not only gets a gratuity about equal to the capitalisation of the former's putative pension which is earned by the same amount of service, but also qualifies for it over a relatively very short contract period, and therefore retains his mobility.

There was a considerable increase in the salary scales in April, 1967, and I am sure that those who are serving are suitably appreciative. But the officers feel that they should be able to opt for a compensation scheme comparable to those which have been introduced where internal self-government has been granted, with appropriate modification. There are three things I should like to say about that.

First, the members of the Service already face an effective loss of career by stagnation. Their compensation will be based on their final salary, and, therefore, they have not got a very rosy future.

Second, internal self-government is not a prerequisite under the Overseas Service Aid Scheme for introducing a compensation scheme. Therefore, under that ordinance, the Minister could introduce such a scheme if he were so minded.

Finally, the compensation scheme is an established machinery. It is eminently suited to the problem, and should be introduced. If the Minister feels that in some way this would mean that a political inference was to be read into it, it should be introduced in some other guise, so that that difficulty would not arise.

There are four objectives that the Minister might—

Sir George Sinclair (Dorking)

Would my hon. Friend say that the arrangements of the Overseas Services Resettlement Bureau in this country need to be maintained and strengthened while there are people in the difficulties that he has very eloquently described, because it has been able to help to redeploy this very good resource of talent and experience into other occupations in this country?

Mr. Godman Irvine

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, but the problem to which I am asking the House to direct its mind is the problem of keeping the first-class men in the jobs where they are now serving. In the small territories it is necessary that those who are already serving and who have the experience should stay there, and if the Minister can say something tonight to encourage them to stay there that will be preferable to getting them a good job at home.

I will refer briefly to four objections I can see to my suggestion. The first is that the standard of compensation might be regarded by the Minister as far too generous. Should the Minister feel that, it would be quite simple to introduce a modifying factor of, say 0.50, or 0.75 as an incentive to retain the experienced officer. If that were done I feel confident that those who are serving the Commonwealth in these territories would wish to remain there. It would enable them to continue in the work which they are doing and which they find satisfactory, and would increase tremendously the morale of the service.

The second objection might be that the terms and conditions of service are a matter for the territorial Government. I ask the Minister to bear in mind that when the service was set up in 1954 those who entered were told that this matter would be closely studied and vigilantly watched, and this would, therefore, be a very weak argument for the Minister to use.

The third objection is that it is the luck of the draw. It might be said that one doctor or barrister does better than another because he is fortunate enough to be serving in the right place at the light time. That is an argument which is not analogous to my proposal. A similar analogy might be that the Minister would say that all those who were serving in the Army up to the rank of major would be the regular chaps, but those serving in the senior ranks were to be short service officers, retired officers or even officers from another army.

The last objection is that this is a novel suggestion. On 9th April, 1967, the Minister admitted in answer to a Question I put down that the officers' career prospects have suffered. If it is a novel suggestion, it is so because this problem has not arisen before.

I ask the Minister, first, to give a definite date when he will be able to do something to enable officers serving abroad to plan for the future, and, secondly, to make quite certain that there is a long-term future for those who are serving in Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service.

12.9 a.m.

Mr. Brian Harrison (Maldon)

I and other hon. Members are grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Rye (Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine) for bringing up this matter. I have had the privilege of visiting the Pacific territories as often as any hon. Member and I hope to be there again during the next few weeks. In fact some records put me still as being in Fiji.

Those of us who have seen the dedicated way in which officers are serving, with no long-term career prospects must be filled with admiration for them. Whilst I think that the pay structure is right, or at least very much better now, it is the actual career structure and the future of these dedicated officers that ought to engage our attention.

I hope that the Minister will find it possible to do as my hon. Friend recommends and either put forward a scheme now or name a date when he will do so.

12.10 a.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. William Whitlock)

Dissatisfaction undoubtedly exists among the officers who have been championed by the hon. Members for Rye (Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine) and Maldon (Mr. Brian Harrison) tonight. That dissatisfaction is completely understandable.

The main cause is that Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service officers joined at a time when they had reasonable career expectations and could assume that they would not spend their whole career in the Western Pacific. Rapid decolonisation has meant that the opportunities for transfer out of the Western Pacific, in particular, have dwindled, and many of these officers who came to the Western Pacific in the expectation that they would not have to serve there for longer than the normal period of seven years have now served longer.

I find that today more than four out of five H.M.O.C.S. officers have been in the Western Pacific for more than seven years, and, however important their work is, the limitations of the often lonely environment in which they work must affect their morale. These officers feel that serving in these remote areas they have been forgotten men in the Service and that they have, in consequence, suffered not only as regards career prospects, but also as regards salaries and suchlike benefits.

There have been those two forms of dissatisfaction. The first is the one that arose out of the introduction of the Overseas Service Aid Scheme in 1961, and, since the Pacific territories are poor, overseas service aid benefits tended to be kept low so as not to create an excessive gap between the expatriate and local earnings. This was bearable as long as officers could look forward to transfer out of the Pacific. Today, this is scarcely possible, and in recognition of this fact new levels of O.S.A.S. benefits were approved as from April, 1967, to make service in the Pacific comparable with service elsewhere, and I think it can now be said that dissatisfaction on that score at any rate has been dispelled.

The second form of dissatisfaction arises out of the discrepancy between H.M.O.C.S. officers receiving O.S.A.S. benefits and home Civil Service secondment terms, the latter being more generous. The reason for the difference is that the H.M.O.C.S. officers have opted for a career overseas while the home civil servants have uprooted themselves for one tour or possible two tours in the course of a home-based career.

The hon. Member for Rye was particularly concerned with the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. The representations of the Designated Permanent and Pensionable Officers Association were investigated by a staffing mission from the Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Overseas Development in April, 1967, and in reply to the hon. Gentleman on 9th April I informed him that as a result the level of the expatriate officers' emoluments there was substantially increased from April, 1967, and that, in addition, we were working on measures to improve conditions of service in the longer term to retain the experienced staff as necessary to keep the administration going while meeting their reasonable claim for recognition that their career prospects had suffered.

The problem in the Protectorate, which also exists in the New Hebrides and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, is probably the most acute example of the staff problem created by the process of decolonisation, to which I referred. All serving H.M.O.C.S. officers in dependent territories face the fact that the career prospects which they had originally envisaged when they joined the service have in some measure diminished. In a territory like Hong Kong, where about 1,200 officers serve, the problem can be mitigated by the size and salary levels of the local public service. But in the Western Pacific the curtailment of career prospects has hit the individual particularly hard.

As I have said, we recognise this problem and we believe that the longer term measures which are under consideration will restore the morale of the officers serving in the Pacific and also take account of the frustration of their career expectations, especially as these cannot be restored so far as the overseas service is concerned. I hope that these measures will be discussed with the Governments and staffs concerned later this year. Beyond saying that, I cannot give hon. Gentlemen satisfaction on the date as to when something specific may come forward, but the discussions will go on.

Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine

But the hon. Gentleman has made no progress since 9th April, 1968, when he said that these matters would be discussed shortly.

Mr. Whitlock

Some progress has been made and, as I have said, these things will continue to be discussed and later this year it may be possible for me to make an announcement. But at this stage I cannot go further.

We continue to recruit large numbers of people on behalf of the overseas countries. In general, this is on short-term contract and carries no guarantee of continued employment since, as local staffs gain experience, recruitment from overseas is bound to decline. In the case, however, of the Western Pacific High Commission territories, although it is no longer possible to offer a lifetime career, and consequently membership of the H.M.O.C.S., in order to bridge the gap until local officers become available, the territorial Governments are engaging professional staff in certain fields, particularly administrative cadets on long term contracts of 10 years' duration. So the pattern is inevitably changing. But whatever the measures devised they cannot restore the days when the unified colonial services provided a career for a lifetime.

Far from decrying the achievements of the Colonial Service or of serving members of the H.M.O.C.S., these developments—and the disadvantages which they brought to some of these officers— serves to emphasise how much they have achieved and are still achieving in carrying on under great difficulty their task of leading the peoples of the dependent territories towards self-government and independence. In recognition of the special position of H.M.O.C.S. officers who are employed on pensionable terms as servants of the Governments of British dependent territories, a new post of Staff Liaison Officer for that service has been created in the Ministry of Overseas Development. Sir John Field, K.B.E., C.B.E., retiring Governor of St. Helena, has been appointed to the post and has assumed his duties today. He will be responsible primarily for supervising the interests of and maintaining contact with all permanent and pensionable officers of H.M.O.C.S. He will also advise on general questions in connection with the employment of expatriate officers, both pensionable and contract. He will be visiting these territories at intervals to keep in touch with the Governors and the staffs there about personnel matters.

I hope, therefore, from what I have said that hon. Gentlemen will see that we are very much aware of the problem they have spotlighted and are doing our best to overcome it. I know that the hon. Member for Rye, in particular, will continue to watch over the interests of these officers, who are doing such a worthwhile job in extremely trying circumstances, and I hope that, at a later stage, we will be able to make a further announcement about the results of the discussions we are conducting that will be pleasing to some of the people he has spoken so well for tonight.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty minutes past Twelve o'clock.