HC Deb 06 May 1919 vol 115 cc765-6W
Captain ALBERT SMITH

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will briefly state the reasons which lead the Treasury to decline to accept the recommendations of the Holt Committee that service with K Company of the Royal Engineers should count for Post Office pension?

Mr. BALDWIN

Service with K Company of the Royal Engineers was military service, and the men of the company were in receipt of Army pay and allowance. The Treasury have no power under the existing law to reckon this service for civil pension. The question of introducing legislation to deal with the matter has been very carefully considered, but the Government do not see their way to propose such legislation, which it would be difficult to confine to the particular case now in question.

Captain SMITH

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, prior to the outbreak of War, the men attached to K Company of the Royal Engineers were filling or covering established positions in the Post Office; whether the salaries attaching to such positions were paid by the Post Office; whether service which demands a person's whole time and which is paid out of a Civil Vote carries pensionable rights; whether Section 3 of the Superannuation Act, 1887, empowers the Treasury to count temporary service which is followed by established service for purposes of pension; and whether, if an established Post Office telegraphist enlisting in K Company is not a Civil servant within the letter of the Act, he should be regarded as a person serving in the capacity of a Civil servant whose temporary service where followed by established service should be taken into account in fixing his pension?

Mr. BALDWIN

At certain post offices K Company Royal Engineers were employed on the ordinary duties of telegraphists, and were regarded as blocking established appointments. While so employed they received Army pay and allowances, together with working pay ranging from 1s. 6d. to 4s. a day from the Post Office. Whole-time service paid out of a Civil Vote is not necessarily or invariably pensionable. Section 3 of the Superannuation Act, 1887, gives the Treasury a discretion to reckon temporary service for pension when followed by established service, if in their opinion any special circumstances of the case warrant such a course, but this provision does not empower the Treasury to reckon military service for civil pension.