§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what steps he has taken to ensure that payment of salary increments in the water authorities during the last 12 months has been in full compliance with the Government's requirement that such payments do not exceed the overall wage bill by more than £6 per head;
(2) by what amount per head the overall wage bill for water authority staff during the last 12 months has been increased by the implementation of incremental scales of pay during that period.
§ Mr. Denis HowellI understand from the National Water Council that the bodies responsible for negotiating the pay of water authority staffs are satisfied that the £6 per week increase negotiated for staff on incremental scales met the requirements of the policy on increments set out in the White Paper, Cmnd. 6151, and that the overall operation of the incremental system did not add to the total wage bill for those staffs.