§ Mr. AMMONasked the Postmaster-General on what principle promotions among superintending officers in the London postal service are based; whether it is a definite policy to withhold promotion from officers who are approaching the retiring age of 60 years, although such officers may have had practical working experience in the Department for as long as 40 years; if so, why officers are called upon to undergo promotion trials, in some cases of several months' duration, when it is not intended to give them the appointments; whether it is an instruction 1164W that officers passed over are to be informed of the grounds on which they have failed to qualify; and whether this instruction is not being carried out?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYThe general principle governing promotions in the London postal service, as in other branches of the Post Office, is to select those officers who are the best qualified for the performance of the higher work. It is not considered to be in the interests of the service to promote an officer who is approaching the age for retirement unless there are exceptional circumstances; and, as a general rule, officers are not employed as substitutes on the higher duties it they are unlikely eventually to be promoted. But employment on substitution duty does not, in itself, give any claim to promotion, and it cannot always be determined when an officer is placed on such duty whether he will be promoted or not. There is no instruction that officers passed over for promotion are to be informed, as a matter of course, of the grounds on which they have failed to qualify, but those who apply for the information are entitled to receive it.