§ Mr. MOLESasked the Financial Seertary to the Treasury whether he is aware that all clerks to inspectors of taxes were given an opportunity of supplying particulars of their education and military service for the purpose of having their claims to appointments as assistant inspectors of taxes considered; and whether, in view of the fact that most of these clerks have now been informed by the secretary to the Selection Committee that they are not able to recommend them for appointments as assistant inspectors of taxes, he will request the Selection Committee to inform each of such clerks of the particular reasons for his disqualification?
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§ Mr. BALDWINI am unable to adopt the suggestion put forward by my hon. Friend. The standard for the tax inspectorate is necessarily high, and only clerks of exceptional merit can hope to be selected. The fact of non-selection implies no reflection whatever upon the efficiency of a clerk in the grade to which he belongs.
§ Mr. MOLESasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that the departmental examination to which clerks to inspectors of taxes have to submit themselves before they are allowed to proceed beyond the salary of £130 has now become a condition for promotion to the grade of staff clerkship, all the clerks who had already passed that examination will be immediately promoted to that grade, in view of the fact that many have been promoted who were not asked to submit themselves to such examination and who were junior to those who had passed that examination and who were passed over for promotion?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe examination referred to is a condition, but not the only condition, of promotion. Appointments to staff clerkships must continue to be made as vacancies occur by selection according to merit from among those who are qualified under the regulations for the time being in force.
Lieut.-Commander HILTON YOUNGasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether junior established clerks to His Majesty's inspectors of taxes receive salaries that range from £50 to £70 per annum, plus 17s. per week and 30 per cent. war bonus; whether it is intended to revise the scale of these salaries in the near future; and whether in any case the scale of salaries of such established clerks will be revised before that of temporary clerks engaged in similar labours?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINEstablished clerks to inspectors of taxes are on a scale of £50: 5: 85: 7.10s.: 130: 10: 200. They enjoy the war bonus applicable to Civil servants generally at corresponding rates of pay under the awards of the Civil Service Arbitration Board, namely, 17s. per week plus 30 per cent, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, above twenty-one, 24s. plus 30 per cent. up to a salary of £156 10s., and thereafter £60 per annum plus 30 per cent. On the question of the revision of the scale of pay I must refer 1033W my hon. and gallant Friend to my answer to the hon. Member for Devonport on the 20th March last. Since that date a Subcommittee of the National Council for the Administrative and Legal Departments has been set up to review the clerical classes in the Civil Service and, 'inter alia, to make recommendations as to their scales of salary. The Committee is due to make a Report by the 31st proximo. Temporary clerks in the offices of inspectors are paid at rates prescribed for work of similar character in Departments generally.