§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North dated 22 December 1982, Official Report, c. 579, if he will give details of the total pay cost of staff of central Government Departments, for each of the years 1976–77, 1978–79, 1980–81 and 1982–83; and if he will give the percentage increase per employee, allowing for the decrease in Civil Service numbers.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe following table shows in column 1 the provison for staff made in the Supply Estimates (average of figures for successive years) and in column 2 the provision for their total pay cost provision as given in my answer of 22 December 1982. It covers central Government Departments, excluding trading funds, for each of the years referred to. The pay provision includes provision for casuals but these are not included in staff numbers. Column 3 gives the average pay provision per staff member calculated by dividing column 2 by column 1, and column 4 shows how this average has changed in percentage terms.
Average staff provided for Total pay provison Average pay provision per staff provided for Percentage change (1) (2) (3) (4) £m £ Per cent. 1976–77 761,481 2,816 3,698 — 1978–79 742,582 3,266 4,398 19 1980–81 703,509 4,627 6,577 50 1982–83 666,068 5,185 7,784 18 The changes from one year to the next include the effects of changes in pay rates, grade structure, overtime working, employers' national insurance contributions and staff numbers. Also reflected is the net change in the cost of wages and salaries resulting from the operation of the incremental system. Under stable conditions the incremental system can be expected to have a neutral effect since the cost of increments paid to those moving up the scale is counter-balanced by the lower rates paid to those entering at the bottom of the scale. However, when an organisation is expanding the proportion of staff on lower incremental points increases and the average paybill decreases, while conversely, during periods of contraction the proportion of staff on lower incremental points decreases and the average paybill increases.
The net cost in any particular year cannot be calculated with absolute precision because this will depend on the particular pattern of recruitment and wastage. However, for 1982–83 it is forecast that increments will add about ½ per cent. to the non-industrial paybill reflecting the effect 278W on the incremental system of manpower reductions aimed at reducing the size of the service to 630,000 by April 1984.