§ Mr. G. Hutchinsonasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in carrying out the proposed reduction in the staffs of Government Departments, he will arrange that fit and efficient temporary ex-Service men shall be the last to be discharged.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterThe order of discharge of temporary non-industrial staff on redundancy is governed by an agreement between the official and staff sides of the Civil Service National Whitley Council. The basic principle of this agreement is that discharge in higher grades is in reverse order of usefulness and in lower grades in order of shortness of service. There are, however, two special provisions for ex-Service men. Ex-Service men of the 1914–18 war are automatically retained until all other temporary staff in the same staff group have been discharged. Ex-Service men of the 1939–45 war may count their Forces' service in reckoning their seniority for the purposes of the redundancy agreement if they became employed in the Civil Service within three months of their release from the Forces. I consider that these arrangements adequately protect the interests of ex-Service men.