Written Answers To Questions
Thursday 14th November, 1946
House Repairs, Wimbledon
asked the Minister of Health whether he is satisfied that work costing over £1,500 performed on a house in South Wimbledon, of which he has been sent the details, was undertaken in conformity with his requirements.
My hon. Friend has not given me the address of the house but I am having inquiries made and will write to him when they are completed.
Colonial Service (Appointments)
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the constitution of the body by whom recruits to the Colonial Service are selected, and what special qualifications are required of non-university applicants.
The constitution of the Colonial Service Appointments Board is based upon the report of a committee on the System of Appointment in the Colonial Office and the Colonial Services, Cmd 3554 of 1930 It is a body of independent persons under the chairmanship of the First Civil Service Commissioner, and its members include persons who have achieved distinction in such spheres of public life as the universities, the trade unions and the Civil Service. These form a panel upon which we draw for constituting the selection boards, and we also make a practice of associating experienced officers of the Colonial Service with the boards as assessors.
Except of course in the case of professional and technical posts no specified qualifications are laid down for non-university applicants. Such applicants have to satisfy my appointments department and the selection board that by reason of their educational background and their experience in civil life or in His Majesty's Forces they are suitable for the appointments which they seek I have asked that while men of high academic quality should be selected among applicants from all the universities, regard should also be had in the case of non-university applicants to wider experience and qualification in such walks of life as law, local government, industry, commerce, finance, etc.
Social Insurance Funds
asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what are the present monthly net receipts paid into the Health Unemployment and Contributory Old Age Pensions Funds. respectively; in what stocks these receipts are invested; how often are transfers made from one stock to another and on whose instructions and for what reasons; what was the maximum amount of interest earned in any one year by the assets of these funds; and what are the annual earnings today.
I am not prepared to add to the full information that is already published in the annual Accounts of the Funds as presented to Parliament under statute.