§ Lieut.-Colonel MOORE - BRABAZONasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air if he will state what proportion of the salaries of the officials employed in the directorate of research is supposed to be compensation for flying risks; whether officers in this directorate have been instructed by their superior officers not to undertake flying duties because such risks are not covered; and whether he will cause an investigation to be made as to the stipulation that flying duties shall be undertaken in the formal course of duties, seeing that the pay of these technical officers is very much lower than that of flying officers in the Royal Air Force?
§ Mr. LEACHIn answer to the first part of the question, the salaries of the officials referred to are not divisible into proportions corresponding to the flying and the non-flying parts of their duties, but represent the fair remuneration for their work as a whole, including flying risks. In answer to the second part, I have no information that any such instruction has been given, and cannot in any case admit the soundness of the reason alleged for it, since, as I informed the hon. and gallant Member on 15th 1599W April last, the risk is in fact covered. In answer to the last part of the question, the stipulation referred to, as I stated in the same reply, is contained in the officers' contracts of service, and I do not understand, therefore, what there would be to investigate. Many of them are paid at a higher rate than flying officers of the Air Force.