asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, seeing that the medical examination for entrants to the Civil Service is primarily instituted for the protection of the different Departments of the Civil Service which the aspirant desires to enter, and having regard to the hardship that the payment of fees for such examination imposes upon the competitors for the minor branches of the service, he will consider the abolition of such fees?

The abolition of the fee for medical examination payable by candidates prior to appointment to posts in the Civil Service would place a charge upon the Exchequer, which I am not prepared to impose.