§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Employment what have been the pay increase rates negotiated on average over each of the last six months in the public sector and in the private sector.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonAs there is no obligation for details of pay settlements to be notified to my Department, comprehensive statistics are not available. However, some information is compiled regularly on changes in basic wage rates or minimum entitlements for manual workers where these are the outcome of centrally determined arrangements, usually national collective agreements or statutory wages orders. This information is incorporated in the published index of basic wage rates. In the following170W table the increases have been recorded against the month in which they become operative, not necessarily when they were negotiated, and expressed as a three-month average as the number of new agreements in individual months may be small.
Weighted average percentage increase in basic weekly wage rates from annual national collective agreements and statutory wages orders covered by the index of basic wage rates Operative date three months ended Private sector Public sector 1980 August 19.4 18.5 1980 September 13.1 18.5 1980 October 15.4 (a) 1980 November 9.4 8.4 1980 December 9.3 8.9 1981 January 9.1 8.9 (a) no agreements were made for this period. It should be emphasised that these figures do not cover non-manual agreements. Also, where pay settlements are made at local level, the increases may not necessarily be the same as those included in national agreements.