§ Mr. Parkerasked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of reserve executive and paymaster officers entered this year from the mercantile marine and civil employment; the number of engineer officers entered from the universities; and the numbers of commissioned officers promoted direct from the lower deck in the executive, engineering and accountant branches?
§ Lieut.-Colonel LlewellinThe number of officers transferred to the executive list of the Royal Navy from the Royal Naval Reserve during the current year is 124; the number of Accountant Officers transferred to the Royal Navy from the Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve is 30; the number of Engineer Officers entered direct from the universities is 4. The numbers of commissioned officers promoted direct from the lower deck in the executive and engineering branches during the current year are 13 and 8 respectively. No promotions have been made direct from the lower deck in the Accountant Branch.
§ Mr. Parkerasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is now able to state the Admiralty decision as to whether the new system of early promotion to commissioned rank for writers, supply and other ratings of the accountant branch is to be similar to the midshipman (E) scheme for artificer apprentices or the sub-lieutenant (E) scheme or both; and when he is likely to be able to announce the details of the scheme or schemes, observing that the matter was again due for consideration on 17th March?
§ Lieut.-Colonel LlewellinI regret that I am not yet in a position to announce the results of the Admiralty investigation into the possibility of increasing promotion amongst accountant branch ratings to commissioned rank.