§ Mr. Leslie Huckfieldasked the Prime Minister whether he will make an announcement about the latest reports of the top salaries review body and the doctors and dentists review body.
§ The Prime MinisterThe Top Salaries Review Body's Third Interim Report recommends increases of £350 p.a.—ranging from 1.3 per cent. to 4.1 per cent. of existing salaries—under the stage 3 Pay Code in the salaries of full-time chairmen and members of nationalised industry boards, senior grades in the higher Civil Service, senior officers of the Armed Forces and those members of the Judiciary within its terms of reference.
The report also recommends that members of the Under-Secretary grade in the Civil Service should receive an additional £150 p.a. under the flexibility margin provisions of the Pay Code, and that the pay of the groups concerned should be subject to threshold arrangements as provided in the code.
The report recommends that the increases should be paid from 1st January 1974 or, where appropriate, 12 months after the date of the last increase.
The Doctors and Dentists Review Body in its Fourth Report recommends increases in the remuneration of all National Health Service doctors and dentists. The increases resulting from the last review took effect from 1st April 1973 and the report recommends that these should now be revised for the period April 1974 to March 1975. The recommendations would increase the net remuneration of the doctors and dentists concerned by about 7½ per cent.
The Review Body has also recommended that threshold payments should be introduced for all NHS doctors and dentists.
The Review Body has drawn attention to a particular anomaly created by the technical requirements of the Pay Code in the remuneration of general dental practitioners, and the Government are 121W ready to discuss with the British Dental Association means of overcoming this.
The Review Body further recommends fees to be payable for a scheme for family planning services under the NHS by general medical practitioners; the Government are prepared to implement the scheme but wish to have the views of the profession before proceeding.
Both reports are being published today as Command Papers and copies are available in the Vote Office. The Government are most grateful to Lord Boyle and Lord Halsbury and their colleagues for their valuable work in preparing these reports and are ready to accept their recommendations.