TREASURY MINUTE. Every temporary writer, under whatever name, who was on the 4th June 1870 employed in any of Her Majesty's civil establishments, and was engaged upon terms which included progressive wages, shall 27 June 1872. (subject to the provision by Parliament of the necessary funds) be allowed his choice of the following alternatives : (A.) Either to continue in his employment upon the terms laid down in clause 3 of the Order in Council of 19th August 1871; or, (B.) To retire, receiving a gratuity upon the scale of a pension commuted at five years' purchase under section 7 of the Superannuation Act of 1859, as applied by the Treasury Minute of 14th June 1859.* Those writers who may elect to receive the gratuities will be eligible for re-employment as writers on the ordinary scale under the regulations contained in the schedule to the Order in Council of 19th August 1871. 10th September 1872. TREASURY MINUTE. The Chancellor of the Exchequer submits to the Board that in order to secure that uniform effect be given to the Order in Council of 9th August 1872, on the subject of writers, intimation should be conveyed 10 Sept. 1872. to the chiefs of departments that the Order in question contemplates(a.) The payment to every writer to whom it applies of the difference between his actual receipts up to the 9th August 1872, and what his receipts would have been had no alteration been made in his old scale, including his increments before 19th August 1871; and, (b.) That he be paid from 9th August 1872, inclusive, at the rate to which his old scale, including his increments, would have brought him on the 19th August 1871, had no change been made in it upon that date. My Lords approve. Let a copy of this minute be sent to the heads of the various public departments, in order that they may give effect to the Order in Council in the manner explained above. 13th September 1872. The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury have received several applications from writers to be promoted, as vacancies occur, to the establishment of the department in which they have been serving, and such applicants have referred my Lords to the reply given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to a question put by Mr. Otway in the * Extract from Treasury Minute of 14th June 1859-"With respect to cases of "abolition of office which may arise under clause 7 of 22 Vict. cap. 26, to persons "who shall have served 20 years and upwards, a period of 10 years shall be added "to their actual service in computing their retiring allowance under the circumstances described in the clause in question. "To persons who shall have served under 20 years, and not less than 15 years, a period of seven years shall be added. "To persons who shall have served under 15 years, and not less than 10, a period "of five years shall be added. "To persons who shall have served under 10 years, and not less than five, a "period of three years shall be added. "To persons who shall have served less than five years an allowance shall be "awarded calculated at the rate of one sixtieth for each year of service, "with an addition of one year or one sixtieth. "In consideration, however, of the very small allowances which would frequently "have to be granted in these latter cases, my Lords will . . . . . . commute "such annual allowances for fixed payments calculated at five years purchase." TREASURY MINUTE. 13 Sept. 1872. TREASURY MINUTE. 13 Sept. 1872. House of Commons, on the 4th of August, relative to the position of writers employed in public departments. Their Lordships learn from the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the statement alluded to in your report was of a much more limited character than the applicants' reference to it assumes. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was not speaking of any general system whereby temporary writers were, as vacancies occur, to be converted into members of the permanent Civil Service, but of a particular class of cases, incident to periods of transition, where the work assigned to writers is discovered to be such as ought to be given to established clerks, and where writers, who have been doing it for some time in a satisfactory manner, are recommended by the heads of departments as fit for the clerkships which are to be created, and are able and willing to pass for admission into them a suitable test examination. In all cases where either the department is included in Schedule A. of the Order in Council of 4th June 1870, or (as must generally be the case) the writer is over the age fixed for admission into the service, the Lords of the Treasury, supposing them to have consented to the increase of establishment, must further be applied to for their consent to the application of Clause VII. of the same Order to such cases. Before giving such consent my Lords would look to see what reason any writer so recommended had had to expect any such advancement, and they would not be disposed to suspend the ordinary rules of admission into the department in favour of any writer who, besides satisfying the conditions stated above, had not also something to plead in the way of expectations either held out to him in express terms, or created and encouraged by the receipt of progressive wages. It would obviously be out of the question for the Government to withdraw from the public any portion of those offices which are now open to competition, to the great promotion of education and improvement of the Civil Service. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was speaking of writers engaged on terms which are no longer continued, and of the means which occasional changes in the organization of departments offer of relieving such men. It is evident that such a statement as this does not warrant individual writers in making application for promotion to vacancies, but is only au intimation to the heads of departments that whenever a writership has to be converted into a clerkship, there is an opportunity of considering the writer who occupies the post if at the time when he began to serve in the department the then existing rules were more in his favour than now. TREASURY Circular issued by the Lords of the Treasury to the heads of the various public departments with reference to the Order in Council of the 12th February 1876 Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, 29th February 1876. I AM directed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to call CIRCULAR. your attention to the 12th clause of the Order in Council of the 12th 29 Feb. 1876. instant further regulating Her Majesty's Civil Service. My Lords think it advisable to give effect as soon as possible to the 12th clause, in all departments where there is an opportunity for promoting to clerkships of the new lower division writers who are qualified for such promotion by their age and standing, and are judged to be deserving of it by the heads of the departments in which they are serving. TREASURY CIRCULAR. It will be observed (clause 19) that "mere copying and routine work "done under direct supervision " is to continue to be assigned to persons engaged on the same conditions of service as have been heretofore in force for Civil Service writers. Although, therefore, clerkships are not to be created for the sake simply of providing means of promotion for writers who have no higher work than this to perform, yet no writers should be allowed to continue to perform higher work than this, and clerkships of the new lower division should at once be created to the extent that is necessary for performing all such higher work as is now assigned to writers. To take an example. Suppose that at the present time 12 writers are employed in a department, and that besides mere copying and routine work they are performing such a quantity of higher work as would, if separated from the rest, employ three clerks of the new lower division, in that case three such clerkships should at once be create 1, but before they are thrown open to competition the head of the department may, if he sees fit, select for promotion to them any writers actually serving in the department who fulfil the conditions of clause 12 and possess the necessary qualifications and merit. No writer can claim such promotion as of right. Clerkships not filled up by the promotion of writers will remain for the Civil Service Commissioners to fill up by open competition. My Lords think it important to fix a limit within which all claims of existing writers for promotion under clause 12 must be settled, and with this view they have fixed 31st August next as the date beyond which they will decline to give their consent (required under clause 7 of the Order in Council of 4th June 1870) to the special admission of any such candidates. It will, of course, be understood that, as the substitution of clerks of the lower division for writers involves an extension of the establishment, the first step to be taken is to submit a proposal to the Treasury stating precisely how many of such clerkships it is proposed to create at once, and why. The more general substitution which Mr. Playfair's Commission contemplates of clerks of the lower division for the existing establishments is a further question which will gradually come under review as clause 4 of the recent Order in Council begins to operate. But the cases to which clause 12 refers constitute a special and temporary class, which, for its own sake, should be disposed of without delay, at the same time it affords an opportunity of beginning to put the Order in Council into force. I have, &c. 29 Feb. 1876. Circular issued by the Lords of the Treasury to the Heads of the various public departments with reference to transfers of Clerks of the Lower Division from one department to another.' Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, 20th March 1877. I AM directed by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to call your attention to the following notice, which is published in the "London Gazette" of 3rd November 1876 (p. 5858), viz. :— "The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury give notice, that transfers of clerks of the lower division, appointed in pursuance of the Order of Her Majesty in Council dated the 12th day of February TREASURY CIRCULAR. 20 March 1877. TREASURY 20 March 1877. Examination of office keepers, messengers, &c. 1876, from one department to another of the Public Service require to be notified to the Treasury for previous approval, and also to the Civil Service Commissioners, in like manner as if such clerks had been appointed under the earlier conditions of the service, with this exception, that they will not be required to pass any further examination provided the situations to which they are transferred have been recognised by the Treasury as proper to be included in the lower division." The Civil Service Commissioners have called the attention of my Lords to a case in which a transfer of clerks from one department to another, after being sanctioned by the Treasury, was carried into effect before notice was given to the Civil Service Commissioners. The Civil Service Commissioners, when such transfers are reported to them, call for the certificates of qualification held by the officers who are being transferred, in order to put upon them the proper endorsements. The endorsed certificate is necessary to qualify the transferred officer to receive his salary in his new situation, pursuant to clause 2 of the Order in Council of 4th June 1870, and hence it follows that notice of all such transfers should be given to the Civil Service Commissioners before they are actually carried into effect. I have, &c. Circular issued by the Secretary, Civil Service Commission, to the Authorities of various Departments, 1876, with reference to the examination of Office keepers, Messengers, &c. SIR, WITH reference to the correspondence by which the subjects of examination for the situations of office keeper, messenger, &c. in your Department were settled; I am directed by the Civil Service Commissioners to acquaint you that the question having arisen in a recent case, it was agreed between the Commissioners and the Department concerned, with the approval of the Lords of the Treasury, that it was desirable that for situations of this nature sufficient arithmetic for the keeping of a petty cash book should be regarded as an essential qualification. Under these circumstances I am to request that you will oblige the Commissioners by informing me whether there is any objection to this rule being applied in your Department to the situations above mentioned.* I have, &c. *It was subsequently settled in almost all cases that arithmetic should be one of the subjects of examination for situations of this class. APPENDIX II. REGULATIONS RESPECTING OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS FRAMED BY THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS, AND APPROVED BY THE COMMISSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY, BETWEEN 1ST JANUARY 1878 AND 31ST DECEMBER 1878. Extract from Regulations-Apprentices in Her Majesty's Dockyards ***For the General Regulations respecting Open Competitive Examinations for Situations in the Civil Service, included in Schedule A. of the Order in Council of 4th June 1870, see p. 129. |