HC Deb 23 June 1920 vol 130 cc2220-1W
Lord H. CAVENDISH-BENTINCK

asked the Home Secretary if a ruling was given by the Treasury in December, 1918, stating that the 10s. increase of pay granted to the prison staffs in September, 1918, was based on a comparison of the rates of pay of the warder with those of the police; if this be so, does this bring the 10s. within the meaning of the term ordinary remuneration, as used by the Civil Service Arbitration Board and the Report of the National Whitley Council; whether at the time this concession was made the Arbitration Board was in being whose terms of reference gave them power to grant increases of bonus due to war conditions; and whether the 10s. has been treated in one case as ordinary remuneration or pay and in another case as war bonus?

Mr. BALDWIN

The awards of the Arbitration Boards did not apply to officers whose permanent scales or wages had been revised on a basis other than that of pre-War conditions, and the bonus scheme embodied in the Report of the National Whitley Council was similarly limited. The Treasury has always held that the special rise of 10s. a week granted to the prison staffs in September, 1918, was in part based upon War conditions, and these officers were not therefore regarded as entitled to the full bonus given to officers still on pre-War scales of salary. The question of the application to the prison staffs of the bonus scheme of the Whitley Council is now under consideration.

Mr. TOOTILL

asked the Secretary for Scotland if he is aware that the Treasury gave a ruling on 20th December, 1918, to the effect that the 10s. increase of pay granted to the prison staffs in September, 1918, was largely based on a comparison of the rates of pay of the warder with those of the police; and will he take steps to carry out this policy in Scotland?

Mr. MUNRO

I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to a question by the hon. Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. R. Richardson) on the 16th instant.