§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures the Government propose to take in respect of the pensions of those who retire during the period covered by the staging of the 1992 Top Salaries Review Body pay award.
§ Mr. PortilloEarlier this year the Top Salaries Review Body recommended new salaries for judges, senior officers of the armed forces, and members of the higher civil service. The Government, taking into account wider implications, including the level of pay settlements in the private sector, decided to moderate the proposed increases and stage them over three years, bringing the total increase down to about half of the recommended level.
The pensions of those who retire normally during the period covered by the staging of the award will be based on the salary payable at or in the period before the date of retirement, in line with the policy applied for public service pensions since the announcement made by the then Prime Minister following the staging of the 1983–84 award.
Those who are retired early in the public interest during the staging period are in a different position from those who retire at the normal end of their career, since they could reasonably have expected to work until the deferred elements of the award had been fully or partially implemented. Arrangements are therefore being made so that senior military officers and civil servants who retired early in the public interest during the period over which the award will be staged need not suffer any pensions loss as a result of the staging.