JUDICIAL OFFICES (SALARIES) ORDER, 1960 (Hansard, 22 November 1960)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT KILMUIR)
My Lords, I rise to move that this Order be approved. The object of the Order is to make the same relative increase in the salaries of the Metropolitan Police Magistrates, other than the Chief Magistrate, as the increases in the salaries of the higher civil servants recommended by the Standing Advisory Committee on the Pay of the Higher Civil Service (generally known as the Coleraine Committee), the acceptance of whose recommendations was announced on August 6 of this year.
The effect of the Order, if your Lordships approve it, will be to increase the Metropolitan Police Magistrates' salaries from £800 a year to £4,100. The salary was fixed at £3,800 by the Judicial Offices (Salaries) Order of May 13, 1959, which also increased the salaries of the Recorders of Liverpool and Manchester, County Court Judges and the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. These increases were again related to the increases in the pay of the Higher Civil Service recommended by the Coleraine Committee. On this occasion the alteration in salary is limited to Metropolitan Magistrates because the increases in the salaries of the Higher Civil Service, which are being followed, affected only salaries up to £4,100. The Recorders of Liverpool and Manchester, County Court Judges and the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate all have salaries above that figure and, therefore, are not affected.
The Order is made under Section 1 (4) of the Judicial Offices (Salaries and Pensions) Act, 1957, which fixed certain judicial salaries in relation to the increases in salaries of higher civil servants. This provision avoids the need for legislation when an increase is made in judicial salaries, substituting for it the moving of an Order made by myself, with the consent of the Treasury and subject to Affirmative Resolution. I think I have covered the object of the Order sufficiently, but if any of your Lordships has any questions I shall, of course, do my best to answer them. I beg to move.

§ LORD SILKIN
My Lords, I rise because I have from time to time taken a keen interest in the remuneration of Her Majesty's Judges and magistrates, and I welcome this Order. No one can suggest that Metropolitan Magistrates, having regard to their vast experience and eminence, will be overpaid, even at the rate to which it is proposed to increase their remuneration: £4,100 a year. But it is a welcome step and I am very glad that their remuneration is now related to something, so that they automatically get an increase when other persons who are in a relatively similar position get it.
The question I should like to ask the noble and learned Viscount is this. I see that the recommendation to increase the salaries of comparable grades in the Higher Civil Service was accepted on August 5 of this year. Presumably the higher-grade civil servants get their remuneration increased from that date, possibly even from an earlier date. What is the position of Metropolitan Magistrates? Does their increased remuneration date back to the date of acceptance of the recommendation or does it date from to-day? I should be very grateful if the noble and learned Viscount could give me an answer to that question.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, first of all may I say that I am grateful to the noble Lord for his general remarks about the Metropolitan Magistrates, in addition to the question he asked. I agreed with all he said. One must always remember that they do their work under the white light of intense public interest in their work in London, and that it is very responsible work and has a very great effect on the general reputation of judicial standards. On the specific point that the noble Lord asked me, he will remember that I said that this Order is made under a section of the relevant Act, and, without going into the details, may I refer him to the discussion which took place on this point in another place, where it was raised and dealt with by Sir Frank Soskice and answered by the Solicitor-General? But the effect is that there is no power to make retrospective the increases sought under this Order. The main Act on which it depends does not give any such power. Therefore, however much one may regret that this Order does not seek 741 to give retrospection, all we can do—as we are trying to—is to make the Order as quickly as possible so that there will be as little disparity as possible.