§ Mr. Liddallasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the hardship caused by the application of the Police Pensions Act, 1921, to those police inspectors already then serving who were engaged upon more favourable terms both as to pension and length of service, he will introduce some amending legislation to regularise the position of officers so adversely affected.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonPolice officers serving at the time the Police Pensions Act, 1921, came into force fell into two classes—those who had been serving in a police force before 1st July, 1919, and those who had joined after that date. As regards the first class, the Act specifically provided that the scale of ordinary pensions applicable immediately before the commencement of the Act should continue to apply to them unless they gave written notice to the contrary. As regard the second class, it has to be borne in mind that the changes effected by the Police Pensions Act, 1921, were only part of the general measures of reform flowing from the recommendations made by the Committee on the Police Service under the chairmanship of Lord Desborough; and, in applying these changes to new recruits, it would have been inequitable to have made an arbitrary distinction between men who joined the police service after the coming into force of the Police Pensions Act and those who joined in the period between the Desborough Report and the coming into force of the Act. Parliament accordingly enacted that, for the purpose of distinguishing 443W between men with substantial service and new entrants, the dividing point should be the date of that part of the Desborough Report which contained the recommendations on this subject, namely, 1st July, 1919. I am unable to find any grounds on which I should be justified in introducing legislation for the purpose of amending this provision.