§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in consequence of the work under the National Insurance Act, any promotions from the officer grade to the surveying grade have been made in the Customs and Excise Department, and, if so, how many from each branch?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEWhen I announced in May last that work under the Insurance Act would be given to the Customs and Excise service, I not only authorised the Board of Customs and Excise to suspend the reduction in the numbers of surveyors which has to be made under the amalgamation scheme, but I also sanctioned a considerable temporary increase in the number of the grade. To the grade, so increased in numbers, ninety men formerly Customs examining officers, first class, whose old scale overlapped the new scale for surveyors, have been promoted. No Excise officers have been promoted to the surveyor grade, but under another concession which I announced at the same time, over 100 members of former Excise classes (second-class supervisors and assistant supervisors) whose old scale was inferior to the new surveyors' scale were lifted from a lower salary into the scale of the new surveyor grade. An incidental result of these two concessions, as I pointed out at the time to a deputation of the service, is that the date of commencing promotions from the officer grade is brought much nearer than was expected.