§ Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Minister for the Civil Service what is the basis of the policy in applying a fixed 2.6 per cent. discount on Civil Service wages and 306W salaries for pension benefit in the light of the fact that comparability assessments with the private sector can produce widely varying pension benefits
§ Mr. ChannonThe figure of 2.6 per cent. is that assessed by the Government Actuary for use in the1 April 1979 pay research negotiations for the non-industrial Civil Service. It allowed for the extent to which superannuation benefits of civil servants are, on average, more valuable than those in comparable employments and took account of any variation of pension benefits between those employments.
The Government Actuary's assessment is of course only one of a number of adjustments made to the salaries of non-industrial civil servants to take account of the superannuation benefits they receive. On average these adjustments lead to a reduction in salary of about 7 per cent. A copy of the Government Actuary's report on the 1979 assessment is available in the Library.
The Government believe that the valuation of pensions in determining Civil Service pay should be subject to independent outside scrutiny and discussions are now taking place with the staff side about how this can best be done.