PROBATION OFFICERS (SUPER ANNUATION) BILL. (Hansard, 7 July 1947)

§ LORD WALKDEN
This Bill concerns a worthy and valuable little body of public servants numbering about 1,100 in all. They work in association with Police Court Magistrates, and others, and their task is to endeavour to deter early delinquents from lapsing and drifting into a life of crime. The purpose of the Bill is to bring both probation officers and their clerks into local government superannuation schemes. Although this service began in the early years of the present century, provision for superannuation of probation officers was not commenced until the passing of the Criminal Justice Act in 1925. Had there been at that time general provision for the superannuation of local government officers, probation officers would no doubt have been included in it.
113 But the scheme then existing for local government officers was adoptive, and accordingly advantage could not be taken of it to make any general provision for probation officers. Therefore, a special superannuation scheme was made for them in 1926. There is, however, no power to modify that scheme, although developments during the last twenty years have made it gravely inadequate, especially in the following respects.
The contributions paid by serving probation officers are fixed according to age at entry, and the contributions average about 3 per cent. of salary which, of course, is not sufficient to provide adequate benefits. The pensions are at a flat rate of £6 for each completed year of service for a man, and £4 for a woman. These rates were related to the retiring salaries in 1926, which were then £350 for a man and £250 for a woman. Since then salaries of probation officers have been greatly improved. The ordinary retiring salary is now £570 for a man, and £460 for a woman, with £30 more in the Metropolitan Police District. Moreover, there are ninety-one senior officers with additional allowances of £50 a year, and there are forty-one principal and deputy principal officers with maximum salaries ranging from £600 to £1,155 a year. It is only right that superannuation should be related to the retiring salary of the officer, as it is in the case of local government, teachers' and other pensions schemes.
The following recent typical cases go to show how inadequately the present arrangement works. I have first the case of a woman officer retiring at a salary of £408 a year, but she can have a pension of only £117 a year. The next case is of another woman officer whose final salary was £438 a year, and her pension is only £137 a year. Then there is the case of a man officer whose final salary was £560 a year, but whose pension is only £134 a year. Finally, there is the case of a principal man officer retiring after reaching a salary of £705 a year; his pension is only £194 year. The existing scheme is limited to officers under the age of forty on full-time appointment. This, in effect, precludes the appointment of a full-time officer over the age of forty, even if he is particularly suited for the work and even if he has been a part-time officer while he was under forty. The 114 existing scheme applies only to full-time officers. There are about 280 part-time officers, and probably nearly half of them are mainly dependent for their livelihood upon their salaries as probation officers. The remainder are working for a nominal retaining fee and are called upon to do only a little probation work. Where the work is substantial and there is dependence upon salary and expectation of permanent employment, it is a hardship that there should be no provision for a pension.
Finally, there is at present no provision for the superannuation of the clerks who are appointed to assist probation officers in the performance of their duties. It would surely be fair that these clerks should have superannuation rights similar to those of local government clerks. The Bill will empower the Secretary of State by order to apply to probation officers and their clerks the superannaution provisions already applying to local government officers. The somewhat complex provisions of Clause 1 have been designed to ensure that the Secretary of State has all the powers which will be necessary to bring into existing schemes persons employed (some of them for many years past) under terms and conditions of service different in some respects from those appertaining to local government service. This is simply an enabling Bill. An order made under it is required to be laid before Parliament, and before making an order the Secretary of State is required to consult with associations of the local authorities, who will in future be responsible for the superannuation of probation officers. (I may say that the officers are already paid by the local authorities, and these authorities will also have the pension arrangement under them.) These consultations will take place as soon as the Bill becomes law, and it is hoped that the new superannuation provisions will be brought into force early in 1948.
The probation service was begun in a small way by men and women who received little or no financial reward for their missionary work in the social services in the courts. Probation officers are now public servants, recognized as an indispensable part, not only of the Criminal Courts where their first work was done but also, and in particular, of the Juvenile and Matrimonial Courts. There will, I feel sure, be general approval of this 115 measure to do justice to them on their retirement by giving them pension rights similar to those which members of comparable professions have enjoyed for some years past. I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time.

§ THE EARL OF MUNSTER
My Lords I rise on behalf of noble Lords who sit on these Benches only to say that we generally give our support to this Bill. All your Lordships who have seen the probation officers and their clerks working in various parts of the country must have been impressed by the admirable manner in which they carry out what are sometimes very arduous duties. They help in deterring hundreds of people of all classes from following the path of crime, and assist in putting them back on to the straight and narrow road. It is quite true, as the noble Lord has said, that this Bill merely gives power to the Home Secretary to make an order, and those orders ultimately come before your Lordships for approval. I think the Bill is an admirable Bill and an ideal Bill, and one of the few upon which it has been my pleasure not to quarrel with the Government. I therefore warmly support this Bill.

THE MARQUESS OF READING
My Lords, this Bill certainly receives the support of all noble Lords on these Benches. As the noble Lord, Lord Walken, has said, the functions of the probation officer started upon a voluntary basis; but in the course of years not only have his duties enormously increased but, correspondingly, his influence has enormously increased. This is an age of specialization, and it is very important that people discharging these important functions should be attracted into the life of a probation officer as a definite career, not merely from the money-making point of view, but because they have a call towards it. At the same time, nobody can pretend that the possibility of giving a life time of valuable work and finding yourself pensionless at the end will extend the field of recruiting. Therefore, if it is now proposed to give a pension to these admirable functionaries, and to their no doubt no less deserving clerks, it will 116 no doubt be generally welcomed by your Lordships' House as a whole.

§ LORD HOLDEN
My Lords, I rise only to say a few words as one who has been connected with probation work for some twenty years, and also as one who in your Lordships' House on more than one occasion has urged His Majesty's Government to improve conditions in the probationary service. I am therefore very thankful and grateful to see this Bill. It will be welcomed by all members of the probation service as a further instalment of those improved conditions which I think we all agree this vital service so richly deserves.