§ Mr. Wardasked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a further statement on the current pay dispute with the scientific Civil Service.
§ Mr. ChannonThe Institution of Professional Civil Servants has claimed that an arrangement made under the last Administration gave the Civil Service scientists a firm pay link for 1979 to the administrative grades pending implementation of the pay research unit board's report on how pay research should be applied to scientists in 1980. I recognise that there has been a genuine misunderstanding about an exchange of correspondence last year. As a gesture of goodwill, I have therefore offered the IPCS exactly what it has demanded subject only to reaching a clear agreement to prevent repercussions and future misunderstandings. Negotiations are at present in train about how to achieve that. I hope that it will be possible to announce a settlement very soon.