§ Mr. R. Gibsonasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware of the hardship to workers in the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Greenock, because there is no official arrangement whereby 954W deductions may be permitted from salary or wages for the payment of subscriptions to the Greenock Royal Infirmary and other such institutions; and if he will have A.F.O. 2008/32 altered so as to allow of the addition of the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory Employés Hospitals Fund, or some similar fund, to be added to the list of associations and funds therein mentioned or, otherwise, to allow of systematic deductions from salary or wages being permitted and arranged for in the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Greenock, so that facilities be made available for the treatment of such workers in medical and other institutions in and near Greenock?
Lord StanleyPrior to the issue of A.F.O. 2008/32, an arrangement existed at Greenock whereby contributions to the Hospital and Local Charities Fund were deducted from wages of employés at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory. The scheme set out in that Fleet Order was intended to regularise the procedure for such deductions from pay and it was of general application throughout the Civil Service. It did not cover the arrangement at Greenock, and it became necessary, therefore, to review that arrangement. It was decided, as a special concession, not to withdraw the privilege from those employés who were already enjoying it, but at the same time not to extend it to new subscribers having regard to the clerical labour involved and to the necessity for restricting exceptions to the general rule. There is, of course, nothing to prevent any person who so desires from paying his subscriptions direct to the appropriate officer of the fund, and, in the circumstances, there are no substantial grounds for varying the decision already reached.