§ Mr. Lubbockasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why qualified accountants are offered salaries of £3,500 at the age of 38 years by the Civil Service Commission, whereas qualified engineers are only offered £1,633, as shown in the official advertisements, copies of which have been sent to him by the hon. Member for Orpington; and how many replies have been received from applicants with the necessary qualifications to the advertisement for professional engineers.
§ Mr. MacDermotThe comparison is not valid: one advertisement relates to permanent appointments (in the Tax Inspectorate) for candidates aged 20 to 28, the other to temporary appointments for engineers aged 35 or over. In the former case, £3,500 is the salary attainable with a normally successful career involving two promotions whereas, in the latter case, £1,633 is the salary maximum of the recruitment grade for professional engineers. Engineers appointed to permanent posts below age 28 have good prospects of attaining a salary of £3,500 (or more) in the course of a normally successful career. The response to the advertisement for engineers is a matter for the Minister of Defence for the Army, but it is understood that one inquiry has so far been received to the advertisement of 1st March: over a period of 12 months 341W the number of applicants with suitable qualifications for comparable posts has been 186.