HC Deb 28 February 1949 vol 462 cc9-11W
Sir E. Graham-Little

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has any statement to make about the effect of the new arrangements for the remuneration of consultants and specialists on the staffs of the medical and dental schools of the universities.

Mr. Hastings

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the effect of the new arrangements for the remuneration of consultants and specialists on the staffs of the medical and dental schools of the universities.

Sir S. Cripps

Yes. The University Grants Committee have received representations from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals on this matter and have given anxious consideration to them. Both the Vice-Chancellors' Committee and the University Grants Committee felt great reluctance to propose any step which might be inconsistent with the Government's policy on wages and salaries, but they came to the conclusion that the new basis of remuneration of consultants and specialists must imply a revision of the salaries of medical and dental staffs at the Universities as a necessary and direct consequence; otherwise the staffing and recruitment position of the university medical and dental schools might have become very serious. I have felt obliged to accept this conclusion, and the University Grants Committee have accordingly written to the Vice-Chancellors indicating revised general limits of salaries in the Medical and Dental Schools, for which they will be prepared to make supplementary grants in the current quinquennium, and I am including provision for these in the forthcoming Estimate for 1949–50. I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT a copy of the letter sent by the University Grants Committee to the Vice-Chancellors.

Following is the letter

"University Grants Committee,

38, Belgrave Square,

London, S.W.I.

18th February, 1949.

DEAR MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR/ PRINCIPAL,

1. I have to inform you that the University Grants Committee have given careful consideration, in consultation with the Treasury, to the memorandum submitted by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals with reference to the Report of the Committee on the Remuneration of Consultants and Specialists.

2. For reasons which are fully recognised in paragraph 8 of the Vice-Chancellors' memorandum, the University Grants Committee have felt much reluctance in accepting proposals for increases in academic salaries at the present time. The conclusion, however, which they have reached (and which the Treasury have, after very full consideration, accepted) is that the recommendations of the Spens Committee have implications which necessitate a revision of the rates of salary now paid to holders of whole-time posts in the medical and dental schools of the universities. The determination of the salaries of individual members of staff will be, as hitherto, a matter entirely within the discretion of the universities, but provision will be made in the Estimates for the financial year 1949–50 enabling supplementary grants to be made to universities for the purpose of readjusting salaries within the limits indicated below. The grants will be treated as earmarked for this specific purpose, and universities will be asked to account for their expenditure in due course.

3. The rates of salary to which the Committee will have regard in assessing the supplementary grants are as follow:—

Clinical posts (full-time)

Revised salaries to operate from a date not earlier than the 1st April, 1949.

  • Professors: Salaries ranging from £2,250 to £2,750 a year.
  • Lecturers: Scales of salary rising from £600 a year to maxima ranging from £1,500 to £2,000 a year (or in the case of lecturers holding posts of special responsibility such as the headship of Independent departments, £2,500 a year).
  • Readers: Salaries within the range of the maxima indicated above for Lecturers.

Pre-clinical posts (full-time)

Revised salaries to operate from a date not earlier than the 1st October, 1949.

  • Professors: Salaries ranging from £2,000 to £2,500 a year.
  • Lecturers: Scales of salary rising from £600 a year to maxima ranging from £1,200 to £1,800 a year.
  • Readers: Salaries within the range of the maxima indicated above for Lecturers.

4. It will be for the universities to determine in borderline cases whether particular posts should, for the purpose of these arrangements, be treated as clinical or pre-clinical. On the information before them, however, the University Grants Committee would think it reasonable if certain posts in Departments of Pathology and Bacteriology were regarded as clinical posts.

5. An announcement of the amount of the supplementary grants to be paid to universities will be made as soon as possible. In order to assist the Committee in assessing these grants, universities are requested

  1. (a) to confirm that the salaries shown in the returns already supplied for the academic year 1947–48 are those actually paid in that year,
  2. (b) to indicate any changes in scales which may have been introduced since 1947–48, and
  3. (c) to furnish particulars of any new posts created in the current academic year and of the salaries attaching thereto.

It would be greatly appreciated if information on both these points could be supplied within a fortnight of the date of this letter.

6. That part of the memorandum from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals which relates to the remuneration of posts in non-medical departments is still under consideration, and a further communication on this subject will be sent to you shortly.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) H. A. DE MONTMORENCY."