§ Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenportasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he can provide statistics showing the number of non-industrial civil servants before the war in 1939, at the present time and as estimated for 1946, respectively; and when arrangements will be made for a demobilisation scheme to cut down excessive staffs throughout the Civil Service as a whole.
§ Mr. Glenvil HallThe number of whole-time non-industrial civil servants on 1st April, 1939, was 374,301, and of part-timers 50,595; on 1st July, 1945, the numbers were 666,981 whole-timers and 96,729 part-timers.
I am not yet in a position to give an estimate of the strength of the Civil Service in 1946, but Departments are revising their staffing requirements and have been enjoined to ensure that reduction in wartime activities are followed without delay by reduction in their staffs. As to the last part of the Question, arrangements have already been made, with the aid of Whitley machinery, for the orderly and equitable discharge of redundant staff.