§ Mr. Lowasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the principles on which men and women are discharged from Government offices in Blackpool on grounds of redundancy; and whether the same principles are in operation in other Government Departments.
§ Mr. Glenvil HallThe principles governing the discharge on redundancy of temporary non-industrial Civil Servants generally, including those employed in Government offices in Blackpool, are laid down in a National Whitley Council agreement of 1945, and these principles have been applied departmentally by separate Departmental Whitley Council agreements. The broad effect of the agreements is that redundant staff in higher grades are discharged in reverse order of usefulness; those in lower grades are discharged in order of shortness of service, except that the first to go are any who are found unable to carry out the duties of their grade with due efficiency. In accordance with a long-standing Government pledge, preference for retention in temporary Government employment is given to ex-Service men of the 1914–18 war.