§ Sir WATSON RUTHERFORDasked the Home Secretary whether the number of police pensioners for England and Wales is about 24,000; whether he can give the exact numbers on a given date; how many or what proportion of these men are over fifty and not fifty-five, fifty-five and not sixty, sixty and not sixty-five, sixty-five and not seventy, and over seventy; and about how many or what proportion on the average, die each year?
§ Mr. SHORTTI can only give figures for the Metropolitan Police Force. In the rest of England and Wales each police authority pays the pensioners who have re tired from its own force. On 31st March, 1919, there, were 9,488 Metropolitan police pensioners, of whom 573 were over seventy-five years of age. There is no record of the ages of the others. The average number who die yearly is 325.
Major NEWMANasked the Home Secretary whether members of the police force who have been pensioned owing to ill-health subsequent to May, 1916, are entitled to some remuneration for the seventeen days' leave which were cancelled during the first eighteen months of the War, as well as rejoined pensioners whose claim has already been admitted in this respect?
§ Mr. SHORTTThe Act of 1910, which conferred the right of a weekly rest day, specifically provides for suspension of such leave on "occasions of emergency." Loss of leave in such circumstances cannot be regarded as a basis for a claim for1834W. monetary consideration. No such claim has been admitted in the case of rejoined pensioners similarly affected.