HC Deb 13 November 1992 vol 213 cc1000-1W
Mr. Burns

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the future work of the pay review bodies.

Mr. Lamont

As I announced yesterday in the autumn statement, public sector pay settlements in the coming year will be restricted to between 0–1½ per cent. to keep the growth in public sector pay bills as low as possible. This policy will apply to the whole of the public sector and related bodies, including those groups whose pay is settled by reference to the recommendations of a review body.

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has written to each of the review body chairmen and asked all except the School Teachers' Review Body (because of its statutory basis) not to recommend basic pay increases for 1993. However, the review bodies have been invited to continue their important work on performance pay and other specific issues as appropriate to their remit groups.

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has also written to the chairman of the School Teachers' Review Body explaining the Government's policy, and the Secretary of State for Education has directed it to have regard to the Government's general policy that increases in public sector pay should be restricted to between 0–1½ per cent. in the coming year.

The Government intend that groups covered by the Doctors and Dentists Review Body, the Nurses Pay Review Body and the Armed Forces Pay Review Body should receive an increase in pay of 1½ per cent. from 1 April 1993. In common with ministerial salaries, Top Salary Review Body groups will receive no pay increase for 1993.

For TSRB groups, the Government intend to honour the second stage of the 1992 award, under which these groups will receive an increase of 2.9 per cent. from 1 April 1993.

The Government see a continuing role for the review bodies, whose advice it has greatly valued, although there must be changes from time to time to reflect developments in their remit groups. Policy on public sector pay for future years will depend on a wide range of economic and other factors, including the development of performance pay and more decentralised arrangements. The Government could not accept that a year of pay restraint should be followed by a series of catching-up settlements which would dissipate the benefits achieved.