§ Mr. Thorneasked the Lord Privy Seal whether he can give reasons for the many anomalies in connection with the Government proposals for total disablement and in cases of death; whether he is aware that the compensation for total disablement is the same whether the injured man be an auxiliary fireman or a member of another air-raid precautions service, but in case of death the compensation varies considerably in the case of widows with dependent children?
§ Sir J. AndersonI presume that the hon. Member is referring to the scheme of compensation, of which I gave particulars on the 2nd March last, when I announced that compensation would in future be paid by the Government in respect of injuries sustained by members of the Civil Defence services during peace-time training. The object of this change was to introduce one comprehensive scheme covering all the Civil Defence services, in substitution for a system under which policies of insurance were taken out by local authorities and different arrangements were made for different services and in different localities. The Government's scheme has thus removed many anomalies inherent in the system previously in force. It is true that there is a lack of uniformity in the one case to which the hon. Member refers, and the reason for that is that it was not considered right to reduce the death benefits to which many existing members of the Auxiliary Fire Service were already entitled.