HC Deb 26 July 1976 vol 916 cc19-20
17. Mr. Wrigglesworth

asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a statement about Civil Service pensions.

Mr. Charles R. Morris

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on Monday 19th July.

Mr. Wrigglesworth

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that reply. Does he not agree that it would have been outrageous to have given way to some 'f the more extreme demands from the Opposition Benches about public service pensions when the pledges given to the public servants were introduced by the previous Government and endorsed by this House? Will my hon. Friend accept the gratitude of public servants for the fact that the pledges given by the present and previous Governments have been upheld, and will he also resist the more extreme demands for cuts in Civil Service manpower which are made by some people and which have been bandied around in the Press recently?

Mr. Morris

I am grateful for my hon. Friend's comments. Gratitude is not a quality which Ministers in the Civil Service Department encounter too often. I emphasise my hon. Friend's point when he said that the proposals of the Government with regard to index-linking of public service pensions brought no more than justice to that group of pensioners.

Mr. Rost

Will the hon. Gentleman say what proportion of the Government's public expenditure cuts will be achieved in the Civil Service?

Mr. Morris

The Government indicated in the White Paper this year that they were seeking to economise on administration to the extent of £140 million. It is hoped that a public statement on that figure will be made in the nottoo-distant future.