§ Colonel PHILLIPSasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture: (1) whether two or three hundred employés of the Ordnance Survey Department who have had previous experience in field work, but are now employed in the office, have been ordered to hold themselves in readiness for employment away from their homes on work required for the land valuation; and, if so, what allowances these men will receive when employed on land valuation work away from their homes; also (2) whether employés of the Ordnance Survey Department employed away from their homes on tithe redemption work, and on temporary transfer to the Board of Agriculture, and on the one-inch survey revision work are allowed travelling and subsistence allowance at the rate of 3s. 6d. per night; and, if so, whether it is proposed to make the same allowance to men employed on land valuation work?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYAbout one hundred Ordnance Survey assistants at present2392W working at the various survey offices have been informed that they will be required to take up revision work in the field for land valuation purposes. The work does not differ in character from the normal work of the survey and no special remuneration could properly be given in respect of it. But it is proposed that an allowance of 3s. 6d. for the first three nights of absence and 2s. for the next twelve nights should be given where an assistant is moved from a division office to the field and no sufficient notice can be given to enable him to make the necessary arrangements, and we have also asked for authority to pay an extra allowance when an assistant in the field is moved more frequently than is usually the case. An assistant employed away from his home on tithe redemption work receives an allowance of 3s. 6d. per night for the first three nights and 2s. per night afterwards. On temporary transfer to the Board he is allowed 3s. 6d. per night to include 1s. special London allowance and when he is employed on one-inch revision work he is allowed 3s. 6d. per night up to a maximum of ten nights at any one station.