§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, what action the Civil Service are taking to conduct the national census on Saturday, 24th April; whether the £48 additional pay will be paid to all civil servants who work in addition to their normal salary; on what statutory authority the first £15 of the £48 to be paid to non-civil servant volunteers is to be paid tax free; and whether he will ask Lord Wilberforce's Committee of Inquiry to investigate these salary payments.
§ Sir K. JosephThe Census of Population will be taken on 25th April, in accordance with the Census Order and Regulations, 1970. Census officers are now recruiting enumerators, mainly from local government and the civil service but (except for special consideration to suitably qualified people registered as unemployed) they will give equal weight to all applications.
All enumerators in England and Wales will be paid £48, of which £15 is an estimate of the expenses deductible under Section 189(1), Income and Corporation Taxes Act, 1970.
The enumerators' work will be spread over the period 1st April to 10th May 408W and will be done in their own time. Leave of absence from regular employment is required on Monday, 26th April, and exceptionally also on the following day, and this will count against the holiday entitlement of civil servants.
The answer to the last part of the Question is "No".