§ Mr. Kellyasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether the National Whitley Council agreement governing the relation between men's and women's pay in the common classes of the Civil Service is expressly without prejudice to the claim for complete equality of pay as between the sexes which is made by the staff side of the National Whitley Council; and whether the Government now proposes to change its policy of consistently refusing negotiations with the staff side of the National Whitley Council or any other body representing Civil Service staffs on the question of equal pay as between men and women civil servants?
§ Lieut.-Colonel Colville:The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the second part of the question, the policy of His Majesty's Government was announced in the House of Commons on the 6th April, 1936, and no change in this policy is contemplated.