§ Lieut.-Colonel Bromley - Davenportasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider recommending to the defence authorities that young men who wish to join the police force should, if they are accepted, be exempt from National Service, in view of the shortage of police.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThere is no power to grant exemption from call-up under the National Service Acts. Men reaching the age of 19 in 1959 have been told that they need not expect to be called up, and in these circumstances I should not feel justified in asking for any general grant of indefinite deferment to recruits to the police service Men who have trained as cadets and who are subsequently attested as constables may, however, have their call-up indefinitely deferred so long as they remain in a police force.