HC Deb 19 April 1911 vol 24 cc1007-8W
Colonel IVOR PHILIPPS

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that the proposal to give an allowance of only 3s. 6d. for the first three nights of absence and 2s. for the next twelve nights to Ordnance Survey assistants employed on land valuation work and who are moved from a division office to the field will not meet the out-of-pocket expenses of these men; whether he will arrange either to increase the scale of the proposed allowance or make an additional allowance as extra pay as in the case of men employed on tithe redemption work; also (2) whether the travelling allowance proposed to be given to Ordnance Survey assistants employed on land valuation work will only be given for the first fifteen nights after the men are moved from a division office; whether, as in the case of men employed on tithe redemption work and one-inch redemption work, the allowance will be given each time the men are moved; whether he will arrange that these allowances are paid to the men as a right, and are not liable to be given or withheld at the discretion of a Departmental superior; and whether he is aware that the out-of-pocket expenses of men who have houses are the same to the men whether notice is given of such movement or not?

Sir E. STRACHEY

The special allowance to be given to assistants moved from a division office to the field at very short notice for land valuation will be paid for the first fifteen nights only. With this exception the ordinary regulations under which assistants are employed in the field will apply. The work in question does not differ in character from the normal work of the Survey, and it would not be possible, therefore, to justify the adoption of the differential arrangements suggested in the question. In the case of tithe redemp- tion work and one-inch revision work the assistants are as a rule absent for a short period only. The question of the sufficiency of the allowances paid in connection with the work of the Survey generally is under consideration by Lord Ilkeston's Committee.