§ Sir S. Reedasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of civil servants employed in 1939 and at the present time, distinguishing them from workmen employed in Government factories and dockyards, etc.; and how the number now employed compares with that employed at any other time during the war.
§ Sir J. AndersonOn 1st April, 1939, the number of non-industrial civil servants, counting each part-timer as a half, was 399,599, including 208,429 Post Office employees; the corresponding figure for 1st January, 1945, was 716,044, including 218,846 Post Office employees. The number has declined during the past eighteen months. The Service reached its peak on 1st July, 1943, when the figure was 730,625. Workmen employed in Government factories and dockyards are included in Government industrial employees and confusion is sometimes caused by adding the industrial figure to the nonindustrial. On 1st April, 1939, the number of Government industrial employees was 240,181 and on 1st January, 1945, it was 675,326.
§ Sir F. Sandersonasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if all civil servants who have endured evacuation from their homes for more than five years will be given an opportunity of returning to their home town after the war, in fulfilment of the assurance given in 1939.
§ Mr. PeakeNo assurance has ever been given that civil servants evacuated from London in the early years of the war would eventually be brought back to London. As my hon. Friend is aware, some of the work which has been evacuated will have to remain in the provinces for a considerable time after the end of hostilities in Europe, and it has been decided that one branch of the Ministry of National Insurance will be located permanently in the provinces. It is obviously not possible to promise an opportunity of return to London to all civil servants working in these Departments if they wish to retain their posts, 649W although efforts will be made, in consultation with staff representatives, to provide for such exchanges as are practicable.
§ Colonel Carverasked the 'Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether in view of the figures published by the Ministry of Labour showing that industrial wages are now 82 per cent. above the pre-war average, he will publish similar;statistics showing how much Civil Service salaries have increased over the same period.
§ Mr. PeakeI regret that this information is not available. In any event I am advised that in view of the very great changes which have taken place in the composition of the Civil Service during the war no valid comparison could be made.