§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will give a detailed list of the various benefits in addition to salaries received by civil servants at all levels; and what estimate he has made of the extent to which these differ from persons in similar occupations in non-Government service.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisDetails of the pension arrangements which apply equally to all civil servants are contained in the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme 1974 and the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (Amendment) Scheme 1975 copies of which were laid before Parliament on 19th November 1974 and 21st April 1975 respectively. Full details of other conditions of service for civil servants are contained in the Civil Service Pay and Conditions of Service Code, which is already available in the Library of the House. In some instances, where different conditions apply to industrial grades, the code refers to other documents, and copies of any such documents can be made available to my hon. Friend if he so desires.
There are wide variations of practice between other organisations. A reliable overall estimate of the extent to which conditions differ between the Civil Service and other organisations as a whole would, therefore, be difficult to achieve and could in any case only be undertaken at disproportionate cost. However, amongst the benefits enjoyed by outside analogues for the 1975 pay research settlement were discounts on goods, company cars, private health insurance and cheap mortgages, none of which is available to civil servants.
The pay systems for determining Civil Service pay by negotiations require that all relevant differences in conditions of service are taken into account in deriving civil servants' rates of pay from those paid outside for similar work; and the Top Salaries Review Body, which makes recommendations for the pay of senior civil servants, also has regard to those differences.