§ Colonel YATEasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether there are sufficient 782W applicants who have obtained first and second-class honours at a university to fill all the vacancies for first class appointments in the Civil Service under the reconstruction scheme; whether the questions of war service and war disability are being considered in no other cases than in differentiation between those candidates who hold the qualifications stated above; and whether any consideration is being given to disabled ex-officers who obtained third-class honours at universities on account of their war service and war disability?
§ Mr. BALDWINCandidature for first division appointments in the Civil Service is not limited in the way suggested by the hon. Member to applicants who have actually obtained first and second-class honours at a university. The educational qualifications required by the reconstruction Regulations arc (a) that candidates should have received continuous and systematic education of a high type until at least the age of eighteen, and (b) that (in the absence of a university record) they should be in a position to produce satisfactory evidence that, but for the War, they would have been justified in expecting to attain a first- or second-class in a university honours school. The decision as to whether this condition is fulfilled rests with the Civil Service Commission, who, I am satisfied, make very careful inquiry into each case. Preference is given by the selection board, ceteris paribus, to candidates debarred from active employment by some physical impairment arising out of the War and not likely to interfere with the discharge of ordinary administrative work; but having regard to the high standard required for first division appointments, I cannot admit that disability should be regarded as justifying a relaxation of the above educational qualifications. That they are not excessively high is shown by the fact that over 350 candidates were admitted by the Civil Service Commission to the first qualifying examination which was held in May.