§ Mr. BROCKLEBANKasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he is yet in a position to make any statement on the question of ensuring that the cuts in teachers' salaries, imposed in 1931, shall not be permanently reflected in the amount of pension payable to teachers retiring at any time during which the calculation of their average salaries is affected by the cuts?
§ Mr. RAMSBOTHAMThis matter raises financial issues which affect not544W only the Exchequer but also local education authorities, governing bodies and teachers in grant-aided schools and institutions. My Noble Friend, therefore, could not consider the initiation of legislation to ensure that the pensions of teachers shall not be affected by the operation of the present temporary cuts in teachers' salaries, assuming Parliamentary time to be available, unless he was satisfied that such legislation was the subject of general agreement between all the parties concerned. Moreover, he could only consider the initiation of legislation in this direction on the footing that both the employer's and teacher's contributions in respect of each individual teacher in service during any part of the period of the currency of the cuts should be revised and paid on the basis of uncut salaries during the whole period of such employment. Accordingly, since contributions have been calculated on the basis of cut salaries since the cuts were first imposed on 1st October, 1931, it would be necessary for the board to obtain retrospective additional contributions from the teachers and their employers, i.e., the local education authorities and independent governing bodies. To ignore altogether the interval from 1st October, 1931, to 1st July, 1934, is impracticable for financial reasons, since the Exchequer would suffer substantially as the result of losing the additional contributions in respect of that period.