§ Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state in table form the cost of bringing up to the level enjoyed by United Kingdom civil servants under the Pensions Increase Act, 1959, pensions paid by each colonial and ex-colonial Government both to erstwhile expatriate civil servants and to their widows and orphans.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodThe pensions increase schemes of most overseas territories are necessarily related to local circumstances and in particular to the78W dates of local salaries revisions. For this reason, and also because of differences in the pension laws themselves, they differ substantially, both in the dates of their introduction and in their form, from the United Kingdom increase scheme. I regret therefore that it is not possible to establish a sufficient basis of comparison between overseas increase schemes and the United Kingdom increase scheme to enable any general estimate to be made of the cost of bringing pensions increases paid by all overseas Governments to the same level as those paid by the United Kingdom Government. The only way to make such an estimate would be for each territory concerned to work out increases which would be payable at the current United Kingdom rates to each of their pensioners and to compare it with the pension increases actually in payment to each pensioner. This would be an enormous task which I do not feel justified in asking overseas territories to undertake.