§ Mr. Marquandasked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs why actual payments to the public services under existing commitments are required under paragraph 36 of Command Paper No. 3150 to be postponed until after the end of the period of severe restraint.
§ Mr. M. StewartI should like to clarify any misunderstanding there may be about this. The provisions in paragraph 36 of Cmnd. 3150 do not apply to cases in which both the amount of any improvement and the operative date had been agreed by 20th July. 1966. They apply only to cases in the public services where there was a commitment to review pay from an agreed date but the amount of any improvement had not been determined by 20th July. In so far as agreements which have yet to be reached in these cases on the amount of any increase do not conform to the severe restraint criteria, it is right that actual payment of the increase should be postponed whilst other workers are subject to severe restraint.