§ Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Lord President of the Council whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the ratio of Members' salaries to (a) the secretarial and office allowance and (b) national average earnings in July of each year from 1945 to 1977.
§ Mr. FootThe information is as follows:
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APPROXIMATE RATIO OF MEMBERS' BASIC REMUNERATION To: Average earnings of full-time manual men Secretarial and office allowance July 1945 1.90:1 — July 1946 3.18:1 — July 1947 3.00:1 — July 1948 2.80:1 —
July 1949 2.69:1 — July 1950 2.55:1 — July 1951 2.31:1 — July 1952 2.15:1 — July 1953 2.03:1 — July 1954 2.35:1 — July 1955 2.15:1 — July 1956 2.01:1 — July 1957 2.67:1 — July 1958 2.62:1 — July 1959 2.48:1 — July 1960 2.31:1 — July 1961 2.19:1 — July 1962 2.12:1 — July 1963 2.00:1 — July 1964 1.85:1 — July 1965 3.18:1 — July 1966 3.07:1 — July 1967 2.92:1 — July 1968 2.71:1 — July 1969 2.51:1 — July 1970 2.22:1 6.50:1 July 1971 2.01:1 6.50:1 July 1972 2.41:1 4.50:1 July 1973 2.11:1 4.50:1 July 1974 1.77:1 2.57:1 July 1975 1.85:1 1.80:1 July 1976 1.74:1 1.73:1 July 1977 1.65:1 1.70:1 Notes
(1) Until January 1972, following the First Report of the Review Body on Top Salaries, Members' remuneration contained an unquantifiable element which was intended to cover the expenses incurred by Members in the performance of their parliamentary duties.
(2) From May 1954 to 30th June 1957, Members received a sessional allowance of £2 per day in addition to their basic remuneration. For the purposes of this table, the sessional allowance has been approximated as an annual flat-rate payment of £250.
(3) The secretarial allowance was not introduced until October 1969. Initially the allowance was a contribution towards secretarial expenses but it is currently intended more or less to defray the total cost of secretarial or research assistance, and office expenses.
(4) Estimates of national average earnings for the period 1945–1977 are not available for all employees but only for manual men aged 21 and over in manufacturing and certain other industries, from regular Department of Employment surveys.
(5) Except for 1945, estimates of average earnings are not available for July. For the period 1946–1977, therefore, estimates of average earnings which relate to a pay period in October have been used.
(6) To obtain an estimate of average annual earnings the weekly estimates for full-time manual men have been multiplied by 365/7.