§ Sir T. BRAMSDONasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty if he is aware that petty officers may serve in the Royal Navy for a period of 11 months without receiving the specified allowance for petty time when discharged to pension, and will he consider the revision of Article 1,938, King's Regulations, to meet this contingency?
§ Mr. AMMONI cannot agree that the position would be, as stated by the hon. Member. The Navy Pension Regulations provide for an allowance of ½d. per day ("Superior Petty Time") for each year of service as petty officer (and chief petty officer), and for ¼d. a day ("Inferior Petty Time") for each year of service in the grade next below (i.e., Leading Rate). These allowances may, under certain conditions, be doubled for each year of service as C.P.O., P.O., or Leading Rate rendered with "V. G." character, but in practice the "time" itself is doubled, and not the rate. The allowances reckon for complete years of service only, but fractions of a year of "Superior Petty Time" are doubled, and if the result gives 12 months the service would rank for "Inferior Petty Time" allowance for a year. Thus a petty officer with 11 months in that grade, and entitled to "Double Petty Time," would receive an addition of ¾d. a day to his pension if the service were accompanied by "V. G." character. If he were entitled only to "Single Petty Time" he would receive ¼d. a day. It is not considered that any revision of the Regulations is called for.