HC Deb 10 March 1910 vol 14 cc1775-6W
Mr. T. M. HEALY

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there has been issued recently by the Board of Customs and Excise a general order compelling a very large body of their officials to retire at the age of sixty-one instead of sixty-two, as hitherto; whether, in consequence of the issue of this order, many officials are debarred from completing the forty years' service which would entitle them to full retiring allowance; whether, in view of the fact that no such redundancy of officials, consequent on the amalgamation of the Customs and Excise services, as would appear to have suggested the necessity for the Board's order, has resulted from the amalgamation, the order in question should now be rescinded or so modified as to allow competent efficient officials, producing satisfactory certificates of health, to complete forty years' service; whether the conditions, under which nearly all the Civil servants affected by the order entered the service, presupposed the right to full retiring allowance; and whether, in consequence, the officials in question will suffer injustice through the continuance and enforcement of the order?

Mr. LLOYD-GEORGE

The order to which the hon. Member refers was issued

population of Great Britain and Ireland respectively in 1839, and show the proportion which the number and the amount of the old age pensions paid in Great Britain and in Ireland respectively in 1909 bears to the population of each country in 1839?

Mr. HOBHOUSE# submitted the following statement

—

in October, 1908, and its operation does, no doubt, increase the number of officials retiring with less than forty years of pensionable service. I regret, however, that I cannot accept the suggestion to withdraw it. As my right hon. Friend, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, informed the hon. Member for Newry on 5th April last, the power to retire officers at any age has always been possessed by the head of a Department, and I am not aware of any right possessed by officers to serve for any definite number of years.