§ Sir R. Gowerasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, in view of the inadequacy of the pensions at present paid to superannuated industrial civil servants who have been employed in His Majesty's dockyards and in view of the fact that this matter can only be considered in connection with superannuation rights of all Government employees, he can arrange for it to be discussed by the Joint Co-ordinating Committee for Government Departments; or whether he will permit a number of associations representative of these men to ask for the intervention of that body?
§ Sir K. WoodI have been asked to reply. By agreement with the trade union 953W concerned the question of the pensions of former industrial employees in H.M. Dockyards has been discussed on the Shipbuilding Trade Joint Council. I do not see any advantage in referring the question to the Joint Co-ordinating Committee. Any wider discussion of the subject would raise the question of Civil Service pensions generally, which is not appropriate to that body and on which I stated the Government's position in the replies given to my hon. Friend, the Member for Central Hull (Mr. Windsor) on 16th April, and my hon. Friend the Member for Down (Dr. Little) on 18th February, 1942.