§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Lord President of the Council whether he will give an assurance that the Government will implement, on approval by the House of Commons, any report of the Boyle Committee on hon. Members of Parliament salaries &c. which may be published in the new year.
§ Mr. Foot:I would refer my hon. Friend to the statement made by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Privy Council Office on 28th July when he said on this matter:
Obviously we shall be asked whether we can give an assurance that the Government will fully implement the resulting recommendations. My right hon. Friend "—the Lord President—
has some sympathy for that view and has seriously considered whether a forward commitment would be appropriate. The Government believe, however, that there are grave 665W difficulties in giving a blind commitment to accept immediately whatever the Review Body recommends.Nevertheless, I assure the House that the Government recognise that they have a strong obligation to Members on the matter of their pay, and I remind the House that they have said that there would have to be clear and compelling reasons for the TSRB recommendations not to be accepted."—[Official Report, 28th July 1978; Vol. 954, c. 2026.]
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Lord President of the Council when the Government received the last report of the Boyle Committee on hon. Members' salaries, when he expects to implement it; and to what level the salary would have to be raised today to give the same purchasing value as the last recommended increase.
§ Mr. Foot:The last report from the Review Body on Top Salaries on Members' pay—report No. 7, Cmnd 6136—was implemented in restricted form with effect from 13th June 1975, the date it was received by the Government. Increasing the rate of parliamentary salary recommended in that report in line with the movement in the General Index of Retail Prices since June 1975 produces a figure of £11,760.