Parliamentary Salaries and Expenses: Review (Hansard, 6 February 1996)

The Lord Privy Seal (Viscount Cranborne):

My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has today written to Sir Michael Perry, the Chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body, in the following terms. As you know, changes in the structure of civil servants' pay mean that new arrangements need to be found for determining Members' pay for 1997 onwards. I would be grateful if you and your colleagues on the Senior Salaries Review Body would under your standing terms of reference undertake a comprehensive review with the following remit. 'The Senior Salaries Review Body is asked to undertake a comprehensive review of the level and structure of parliamentary pay and allowances and to make recommendations for the future. The review should cover each of the following items:

(i) the salary of Members of the House of Commons;
(ii) the salaries of Ministers and other office-holders;
(iii) all allowances, comprising the Office Costs Allowance, Motor Mileage Allowance, Additional Cost Allowance and the London Supplement;
(iv) the severance pay and pension arrangements for MPs and Ministers;
(v) the rates of Peers' expenses allowances and the Secretarial Allowance for Ministers and other paid office-holders in the House of Lords; and
(vi) a linkage to provide the basis for annual uprating in future years without the need for parliamentary decision.

I realise that such a review will he time consuming and needs to he fitted in with your other work. Nonetheless, I would be grateful if it could be completed in time for you to make recommendations, if at all possible, by the end of June.