Senior Salaries Review Body (Hansard, 31 March 1999)

§ The Prime Minister

Two Reports from the Review Body on Senior Salaries are published today. One on the initial pay, allowances, pensions and severance arrangements for Members of the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly; and a second on the salaries for Ministers and Office-holders and office support for Members in those bodies, and on certain Parliamentary Development Recommendations outstanding from the Review Body's 1996 Review of Parliamentary pay and allowances. Copies are available in the Vote Office and the Libraries of the House. I am grateful to the Chairman and the Members of the Review Body for their work.

The main recommendations of the Review Body with regard to pay in the devolved institutions are:

Members' Salaries	£
Scottish Parliament	39,000
Northern Ireland Assembly	37,000
National Assembly for Wales	33,500

allowance systems within the new institutions. As the Review Body itself acknowledges, it is not yet possible to know exactly what the allowances will need to cover and some of the recommendations themselves point to further work. The Government believe that further work needs to be done on the basis of the recommendations and that this is best done by the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly themselves. We would expect them to put in place as soon as possible an appropriate but closely controlled system, mindful of the need for a prudent approach and the need to justify to the taxpayer any significant divergence from the recommendations made by the Review Body.

In both of the Reports on the new devolved institutions the SSRB noted the difficulty of judging the correct level of pay and allowances when the institutions were not yet in operation. In both cases the SSRB recommended an early review, in 2001, which would be based on the evidence of two years of operation rather than on the current basis of the anticipation of roles and responsibilities. The Government recognise the difficulty expressed by the SSRB and fully accept the arguments for a review in 2001.

715W

In relation to Ministers in the UK Government, the Review Body recommends that the salaries for Ministers below Cabinet level in the House of Lords and certain

Junior Ministers and other Office Holders in the House of Lords
	Current salary	Salary after SSRB recommendation	Salary from 1 April 1999¹
Minister of State	53,264	61,764	64,426
Parliamentary Under Secretary	44,832	53,332	55,631
Government Chief Whip	53,264	61,764	64,426
Deputy Chief Whip	44,832	53,332	55,631
Government Whip	40,547	49,047	51,161
Leader of the Opposition	44,832	53,332	55,631
Opposition Chief Whip	40,547	49,047	51,161
Chairman of Committees	53,264	61,764	64,426
Principal Deputy Chairman	49,052	57,552	60,032
¹Increase in line with SSRB recommendation for these and other Ministerial and Parliamentary salaries

This recommendation reflects the Review Body's finding that, since the 1996 changes to the pay arrangements for Ministers in the Commons, the salaries of these posts in the Lords has fallen behind to an unreasonable extent. The proposed one-off increase of £8,500 is broadly equivalent to the amount by which the MP's salary paid to Ministers in the Commons was abated prior to the 1996 changes and so restores the relativity. The Government support the arguments put forward by the Review Body that such an increase for these posts is fair and reasonable. We shall be bringing forward a draft Order for consideration by each House to implement the recommended changes.

The Review Body also makes a series of recommendations relating to the central provision of IT equipment for Members' offices, both at Westminster and in their constituencies. The Government are not persuaded by the arguments put forward for enforced central provision of such equipment as this would remove Members' choice in determining what equipment they needed, and how much of the Office Costs Allowance they wish individually to spend on it. The Government agree, however, that there may be cost and other advantages in central bulk procurement of IT equipment for those Members who wish to pursue such an approach. We propose therefore to invite the Information Committee to explore this option further and report its views to the House.