§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many public-sector employees have index-linked wages or salaries; how many ex-public sector employees have index-linked pensions; how many persons receive public-sector index-linked wages, salaries or pensions; and what percentage this last category is of the total work force.
§ Mr. HayhoeI have been asked to reply.
Recent pay settlements for both the police and fire services have been based on links with average earnings data, affecting a total of about 175,000 employees. In 1979, there were approximately 2.3 million public sector pensions in payment, the great majority of which were index-linked. These together amount to some 10 per cent. of the total work force.