§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Prime Minister (1) whether any women have been taken into employment in Government Departments this year; and, if so, whether he can state how many, and the reason why they were taken in preference to ex-service men; (2) how many ex-service men have been taken into employment this year in Government Departments in substitution for women?
§ Mr. BALDWINI will answer these questions together. Women have continued to be taken into Government employment during the current year when their services were essential for work which has been accepted as specially appropriate to women. Examples of such work are administrative and clerical work in women's welfare branches and women's training branches, work in women's sections of employment exchanges, day telephone operating, typing and shorthand typing. I am unable to state the number of women taken into employment during the year, but on balance there was a fall of 20,795 in the total number of women employed in Government Departments, as shown in the periodical White Papers, between the 1st January and the 1st October. The number of non ex-service men employed fell in the same period by 11,751. The number of ex-service men employed rose in the same period by 17,608, but precise information is not available as to the proportion in which the additional ex-service men are to be regarded as substituting women and men respectively.