§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the fact that the chairman of public boards and top paid civil servants covered in the Boyle report are in addition to their salary increases of many £1,000s last April, to receive the equivalent of a further £2,000 to £7,000 per year increase as a result of the Budget tax concessions, whether he will bear this in mind when making appeals for wage restraint by lower-paid workers.
§ Mr. BiffenThe Government's policy is that wage increases for any group of workers should be determined by what the organisation concerned can afford to pay in the light of the Government's fiscal and monetary policies. Generalised appeals for wage restraint to lower-paid workers are not relevant to this policy: but nor are the increases paid to the groups covered by the Top Salaries 209W Review Body, or the benefit these groups received from changes in direct taxation in the Budget, relevant to pay claims by other groups, including the lower-paid.