HC Deb 25 April 1995 vol 258 cc429-31W
Mr. Sykes

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the pay of the most senior ambassadors.

Mr. Hurd

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House on 9 February,Official Report, columns

Mr. Goodlad

The answer for non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the FCO, including the Overseas Development Administration, is shown in the table.

(d) statutory provisions for open government, (e) performance indicators and (f) provisions under the citizens charter. [20657]

Mr. Goodlad

The answer for non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the FCO, including the Overseas Development Administration, is shown in the table.

345–47, that parallel arrangements to those established for the pay of permanent secretaries would be made for the most senior ambassadors—that is, those with a rank equivalent to permanent secretary.

A remuneration committee has now been established to advise me on the pay of those ambassadors. The full terms of reference are given. Although the final decisions on the pay of individual ambassadors will be for me to take, I would expect normally to accept the recommendations of the committee.

As in the case of the remuneration committee dealing with permanent secretaries' pay, there will be five members of the committee, three from the private sector, the head of the diplomatic service and the chief clerk of the diplomatic service. The recommendations made to me will be those of the three private sector members and the terms of reference provide that the chairman be drawn from their number.

Sir Denys Henderson has agreed to be the first chairman of the committee. Sir Michael Perry and Mr. Allan Gormly have also agreed to serve on it. I am grateful to all of them. The presence of Sir Michael Perry, who is also chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body and of the Committee on Permanent Secretaries Pay, will help ensure that awards made to senior ambassadors are in balance with those made to permanent secretaries.

The salaries of individual ambassadors will be published in £5,000 bands in the departmental report each year.

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