§ 38. Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will give either actual figures or an estimate of the cost to public funds of the pay increases to higher civil servants and chairmen of nationalised boards since October, 1964.
§ Mr. David HowellThe estimated cost to the end of 1970, for the higher Civil Service and chairmen of the main nationalised industry boards, is about £3½ million.
§ Mr. LewisMay we be told why, when these civil servants and higher-paid State employees receive a 62 per cent. increase in two-and-a-half years, this appears to the Government not to be inflationary while a 10 per cent. increase for lower-paid workers appears to be inflationary? May we be given figures of the actual increases that have taken place during this period for these employees?
§ Mr. HowellI am not sure that I accept all of the hon. Gentleman's arithmetic. These increases, of course, flowed from the recommendations of the Plowden Committee, which were put forward when the Labour Party were in power, and represent increases covering a period of years. They must, therefore, be seen in that light.
§ Sir G. NabarroWill my hon. Friend accept the relevance of my supplementary question, which is that it is excessively difficult to seek to limit an increase in pay for power workers to 10 per cent. when the heads of the industry in which these men are working receive increases in pay of seven or eight times that amount, utterly without justification?
§ Mr. HowellI see the relevance of my hon. Friend's supplementary question but not its validity, because these increases cover a number of years. When one sees the matter in that light, one sees a fairer and more sensible picture.