§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to the answer of 15 May, Official Report, column 120, concerning the increase in directors' fees and other emoluments from 1979 onwards., if he will publish in the Official Report his follow-up letter to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby, dated 11 July, on this matter together with the enclosed tables.
§ Mr. FletcherThis is as follows:
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Corporate and Consumer Affairs
Austin Mitchell, Esq, MP
House of Commons
LONDON SW 1A OAA 11 July 1985 Dear Austin,
You tabled a Question recently about the increase in directors' fees and other emoluments for 1979 to the latest year available.
731WIn my written reply to you on 15 May, I said that the information was not immediately available from the Department's regular analysis of company accounts but that I would write to you as soon as possible.
We are unable to provide estimates of the total directors' fees and emoluments to all companies, but we do have some limited information for large industrial and commercial companies covered by the Department's analysis of company accounts. The purpose of the analysis is to provide estimates of the balance sheet, income and appropriation account, and sources and uses of funds of all industrial and commercial companies based upon a small representative sample of 2,600 such companies. Unfortunately the sample is not designed to produce statistically reliable estimates of directors' emoluments, and for this reason no information on these emoluments are published with the other results of the analysis in Business Monitor MA3, Company Finance. However, we do have information for the larger companies in the analysis in respect of the emoluments of the chairman and the highest paid director as shown in table 1 and table 2 attached. The population of companies varies slightly from year to year mainly as a result of takeovers and mergers, so it is not possible to derive a precise estimate of the annual increase from these figures. However, these figures are not inconsistent with the reported findings of the ICSA/Korn Ferry International survey of companies in the "Times 1,000" largest companies.
I hope this is of some assistance to you.
I have arranged for a copy of this letter to be placed in the Library.
Table 2 Quartiles and Medians for Emoluments of Chairmen and Highest Paid Directors in Large Industrial and Commercial Companies*†, 1979 to 1981‡ £ Lower Quartile Median Upper Quartile Chairman Highest Paid Director║ Chairman Highest Paid Director║ Chairman Highest Paid Director║ 1979 9,450 26,660 25,600 37,688 42,773 48,640 1980 12,328 30,047 30,782 41,719 47,800 57,836 Percentage increase 29.2 12.7 20.2 10.7 11.8 18.9 1981 13,225 31,977 34,375 46,027 57,714 65,797 Percentage increase 7.3 5.8 11.6 10.3 20.7 13.7 * As for table 1. † Figures not readily available in this detail for 1982 and 1983. ‡ As for table 1. ║ As for table 1.