§ Mr. Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Ministerial offices had their Ministers' salaries fixed at their present level over 100 years ago; and whether he will give a list of the various grades of the civil servants employed in these Departments on that date, together with the salaries paid, showing, where possible, a comparison with the same or similar types of Civil Service employment and the salaries received at the latest convenient stated date.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Secretaries of State for the Colonies, Foreign Affairs, the Home Department and War had their salaries fixed at their present level of £5,000 over 100 years ago. Salaries of £1,500 and £2,000 were then, as now, payable to Junior Ministers in those Departments.
Civil servants 100 years ago were not graded uniformly in Departments as they are today, but, as a representative example of 1857 grading, the Treasury staff then comprised an assistant secretary (£2,500), principal clerks (£1,000-£1,500), 122W first class clerks (£700-£900), second class clerks (£350-£600) and third class clerks (£100-£250). Owing to changes in the structure of the Civil Service no valid comparison can be made with current salaries, but a clerical officer now receives £240 at his minimum and the Joint Permanent Secretaries to the Treasury receive £6,500.
§ Mr. Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will detail the list of Ministers who had their salaries first fixed over 100 years ago; and, taking the £ as having a spending value of 20s. at the inception of these salaries, what is the relative worth today of these salaries, after allowing for the depreciation in the purchasing value in the £.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe salaries of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretaries of State for the Colonies, Foreign Affairs and the Home Department were first fixed at £5,000 in 1831, and at the same time Under-Secretaries of State were given their present salary of £1,500; in terms of purchasing power, those salaries are now equivalent to £1,450 and £435 respectively.
In 1851 Ministerial salaries were again reviewed, and among other changes the salary of the Financial Secretary to the Treasury was fixed at £2,000, which is now equivalent to £440. In 1855 the salary of the Secretary of State for War was fixed at £5,000, now equivalent to £1,450.
No official price indices are available for the years before 1914, so for the greater part of the period unofficial estimates of price changes have had to be used in making the calculations.