§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make a statement on the negotiations on teachers' salaries.
§ Mrs. ThatcherDiscussion is continuing on some of the detailed matters in the schoolteachers' claim for increases from 1st April, 1973. The other groups of teachers have not yet submitted claims. As to the future course of negotiations, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House on Monday.
On 20th September, the school teachers claimed that the London allowance should be raised from 1st November, 1972, from £118 to £300. The management panel promised to make an offer on 20th October but decided in the event, because of the exceptional situation created by the tripartite talks, not to make it then. On 3rd November it made an offer of an increase of £15 which was rejected by all the teachers' panels—except the college of education lecturers who reached an agreement—and which has now lapsed. It was again calculated on the basis developed in Report No. 44 of the National Board for Prices and Incomes. London allowance as part of pay is now subject to the standstill.—[Vol. 846, c. 926–7.]