§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Lord President of the Council what provision has been made in recent years in the estimates of pensions for the staff of hon. Members; how this provision compares with the amount notionally available; what the amount actually disbursed has been; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe maximum sum available to an hon. Member to make pension contributions in respect of a person employed by him and paid out of the office costs allowance is limited in any one year to 10 per cent. of the limit of the office costs allowance for that year.
Although the total sum notionally available is therefore equal to 10 per cent. of the provision for the office costs allowance included in the Estimates for the House of Commons, the sum actually available is further restricted by the application of a pension provision limitation of 10 per cent. of the gross salary paid to an individual secretary/research assistant. Given that most Members are unlikely to devote the whole of their office costs allowance to salaries, because of the need to meet other expenditure, the notionally available figures shown below are not very relevant.
With that proviso, the total sums notionally available, together with the total sums actually expended in each of the last three completed years, are:
Notionally available £ Actual expenditure £ 1988–89 1,468,000 776,795 1989–90 1,560,000 836,961 1990–91 1,775,000 948,219