MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the position of port clerk of Customs was recognised as a distinct Civil Service appointment, recruited by an examination under the Civil Service Commissioners distinct from that for any other branch of His Majesty's Civil Service?
§ Mr. MASTERMANPrevious to the reorganisation recommended by the recent Committee on the amalgamation of the Customs and Excise Departments port clerks in the Customs were recruited by a separate examination.
MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether an outdoor officer of Customs could only become a port clerk by undergoing examination and receiving a certificate of qualification from the Civil Service Commissioners; and, if so, whether a port clerkship was thus recognised as a distinct Civil Service appointment?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe reply to both parts of the question is in the affirmative.
MARQUESS Of TULLIBARDINEasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he would state the authority under which the Board of Customs and Excise or the Treasury is compelling port clerks, who entered His Majesty's Civil Service to perform the duties of a specific class or grade, to accept, contrary to their expressed 915W wishes, appointments as officers of Customs and Excise involving the performance of duties which in their nature and conditions are distasteful to clerks, which are alien to those which they entered the Civil Service to perform, and which have hitherto been performed by classes recruited from quite distinct Civil Service examinations?
§ Mr. MASTERMANPersons holding appointments under the Board of Customs and Excise hold office at the pleasure of the Board, and may be required to perform all departmental duties. This must be well understood by the port clerks, as ever since that class was created, individual members of it have performed outdoor duties as part of their daily routine.