[H.L.]

FINANCIAL MEMORANDUM.

1. Part I of the Bill.-This Part is designed to facilitate the reorganisation of District Probate Registries under Section 108 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1925, into 11 Registry groups, with the Chief Registry of each group in one of the most populous and accessible centres.

The staffing arrangements and non-effective benefits proposed are modelled on those recently applied to the County Court Service. Both the Registrars and the clerks will in future normally be established Civil Servants, and as such subject to a fixed retiring age and eligible for pension under the Superannuation Acts. Under the new scheme fees for agency work, which are now in some cases retained wholly or partially by Registrars and their clerks, will be surrendered to the Exchequer.

It is estimated that the ultimate saving to be effected by the adoption of the scheme, which was recommended in 1923 by a Committee presided over by Mr. (now Mr. Justice) Tomlin is £19,000 per annum at the mean of the new scales of pay.

In order to facilitate the retirement of existing officers who will become redundant, it is proposed to grant special non-effective benefits as follows:

(a) Registrars.

Under Clause 2 of the Bill those Registrars who apply and are approved for retirement within a limited period may receive the following special benefits:

(a) If they are pensionable a special lump-sum addition to their normal compensation allowances (subject to certain limits):

(b) If they are unpensionable special retiring gratuities not exceeding twice the amount of their respective annual salaries.

Both classes will be allowed to reckon for noneffective benefits their average annual receipts from agency fees in the three years ending 31st December 1925.

(b) Clerks.

Under Clause 4 of the Bill those existing clerks who are too old to be made established Civil Servants will be called upon to retire at ages varying from 65 to 70. In the case of clerks so retired it is proposed to increase the gratuities normally payable by an amount not exceeding 100 per cent. In these cases also receipt from agency fees will be reckonable for non-effective benefits.

It is estimated that these concessions will involve a non-recurrent payment from the Superannuation Vote of approximately £12,500, and an additional annual payment of not more than £1,400 to such pensionable Registrars as may be retired within the prescribed period under the scheme.

2. Part III of the Bill.-This Part provides for the appointment of two additional members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, each of whom is to receive a yearly salary of £2,000 a year, to be charged on the Consolidated Fund. The Bill contemplates the possibility of an increase being made to this salary out of the revenues of India up to an amount not exceeding £2,000, but any increase so made will not be a charge on the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. The Bill also provides for pensions of £1,000 per annum on retirement for members of the Committee appointed under it.

The annual cost, therefore, to the Exchequer under the Bill in a full financial year will be £4,000 apart from non-effective charges; in the current financial year the amount will be a proportionate amount depending on the date on which the new appointments are made.

As against this the Bill provides for the repeal of Section 30 of the Judicial Committee Act, 1833, as amended by Section 4 of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1887. Under that section, as amended, allowances may be made to two ex-Indian Judges attending the Judicial Committee; these allowances, with the cost-of-living bonus, amount in the aggregate to £1,040 per annum. This repeal, however, will not affect the persons now holding these offices, but on their retirement a saving of £1,040 will be effected under this head. Eventually, therefore, the net increase of expenditure involved by

this Part of the Bill will amount to £2,960, together with an amount (which cannot be estimated in advance) in respect of pensions.

3. Clause 20.-This clause allows a Civil Servant who is appointed to be a County Court Registrar to elect for a pension calculated on the Civil Service scale upon his whole service instead of for a pension calculated on the special Registrar's scale upon his service as Registrar only. Such cases will be rare and it is not possible to estimate the small additional expenditure involved.