§ Commander Purseyasked the Secretary of State for War what is the number of Army privates who are being paid long service pensions worked out to two places of decimals and a basic rate of £1 3s. 7–50d. per week.
§ Mr. ProfumoThe answer to the first part of the Question is none. The number of those being paid pensions at a basic rate of £1 3s. 7½d. a week could not be calculated without a disproportionate effort.
§ Commander Purseyasked the Secretary of State for War if he will state the present weekly long service pension and terminal grant of a general and the basis on which the figures are calculated; and by how much this exceeds the amounts paid to a private.
§ Mr. ProfumoThe retired pay and pensions of all ranks is designed to give an appropriate reward for the rank obtained and service given. The weekly 59W rate of retired pay of a general who has served a full career of 34 years in the Army is £53 13s. 2d., and his terminal grant (which is three times the annual rate of retired pay) is £8,400. It would in practice be rare to find a man with a comparable length of service who had not risen above the rank of private. But in such a case the weekly rate of service pension would be £6 1s. 4d., and the terminal grant would be £946 8s. 0d.