asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will introduce appropriate legislation to ensure that all police officers, upon retirement from the various police forces, after at least 20 years of service, are given a substantial gratuity to facilitate the transition from living in police-owned accommodation and to enable them to purchase a dwellinghouse.

The majority of officers now provide their own accommodation, for which they receive a rent allowance. The police pension scheme already enables an officer to commute part of his pension for a lump sum after 30 years' service and agreement has recently been reached to allow a similar facility after 25 years' service.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will issue a circular to all local authorities ask- ing them to bear in mind the difficulties of retiring police officers in their areas who, after giving considerable periods of service to the community, during which time, as a condition of service, they have resided in police accommodation, are too old to obtain mortgages on private dwelling-houses over extended periods of time and to give all such officers priority on the council house waiting list.

In 1970 a report of a Police Advisory Board working party on the housing of serving and retired police officers was circulated to all police authorities. It recommended that police authorities and housing authorities should keep in touch on the housing problems of officers due for retirement, and that officers who wished to acquire residential qualifications for a council house should be encouraged to apply well before retirement date and should not be moved during their last five years of service. I understand that in most areas these arrangements are working satisfactorily.