§ Mr. LANE-FOXasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there is any other Civil Service Department in which the full duties and responsibilities of administration are assumed at such an early age as in the Customs and Excise Department, and at so low a remuneration as to be below £2 a week; and whether he will extend to the Customs and Excise staff a recommendation made by the Royal Commission on the Civil Service that, even in the case of certain officials who obtained their appointments by examination inferior in standard to the Customs and Excise entrance examination, the incremental progress should after a salary of £130 per annum is reached be at the rate of £10 per annum?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe duties of these officers are executive duties, prescribed in codes of instructions, and performed under the supervision of local superior officers, and I cannot accept the suggestion, in the first part of the question, that they are incommensurate with the age and salary of officers in the early years of service or with the duties of other Civil servants at corresponding ages and salaries. As regards the second part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to his question of the 23rd ultimo on the subject of the salary scale of these officers.