§ Mr. Callaghanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what account is taken in the staffing of Government Departments of the contribution women can make in solving our present manpower problems.
§ Mr. DaltonHis Majesty's Government are most anxious that women should continue the great contribution which they have made in the war years to the work of Government Departments. On the position of married women in relation to permanent posts in the Civil Service, I expect a report very shortly from a committee of the Civil Service National Whitley Council. Meanwhile, I am very glad that many thousands of married women continue to be employed in temporary Civil Service posts, and the special wartime arrangements enabling an established woman civil servant on marriage to draw her marriage gratuity and stay on inthe Service, retaining her former scale of pay and her eligibilty for promotion, are still in force. In pursuance of the Prime Minister's recent broadcast appeal to all women, who can possibly do so, to enter, or continue in, employment, Government Departments are most anxious to retain and to recruit married women as temporary civil servants, wholetime or parttime, during the present critical period of national effort.