§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether the 40 per cent. pay offer proposed for British Steel Corporation steel executives is compatible with current Government monetary allocations to the British Steel Corporation.
§ Mr. Michael MarshallThere is no 40 per cent. pay offer proposed for BSC executives.
The pay of BSC board members, as for those of other nationalised industries, is a matter for the Government, in the light of the recommendations of the Top Salaries Review Body. After many years of being held down below market rates these salaries are being increased in stages to the levels recommended by the Review Body; the final stage of the recommendations for April 1979 will be payable from 1 April 1980. In the case of BSC this will give increases of 16 per cent. for the chairman and from 3 per cent. to 11 per cent. for the other full time members of the board. There will be a further report from the Review Body in due course recommending 1980 levels of salary, but what these recommendations will be is a matter for the Review Body itself in the light of all the evidence. The BSC has given evidence to the Review Body but has not suggested what levels of increases might be appropriate.
The pay of senior executives below board level is a matter for the BSC. I understand, however, that the Corporation is not proposing to consider a general increase in the pay of their senior executives, who last had an increase on 1 January 1979, until the outcome of the present dispute is known.