Review Body on Senior Salaries (Hansard, 15 February 2000)

§ The Prime Minister

The 2000 report of the Review Body on Senior Salaries, which makes recommendations about the pay of the senior civil service, senior military personnel and the judiciary, together with the annual uprating of Parliamentary salaries, is being published today. Copies are available from the Vote Office. I am grateful to the Chairman and members of the Review Body for their work.

The main recommendations of the Review Body are: an increase from 1 April 2000 of 2.9 per cent. in the minimum and maximum values of each of the pay bands for the senior civil service. Within the bands, departments and agencies will determine individual awards on the basis of performance. A further 0.4 per cent. of the total senior civil service paybill should be made available to fund additional performance awards for the most senior staff, whose pay has fallen well behind comparable remuneration elsewhere. Promotion to and within the senior civil service should be recognised by a move to a higher pay band and an increase of not less than 10 per cent.; an increase from 1 April 2000 of 3.3 per cent. in judicial salaries, with additional increases for seven senior members of the judiciary as a result of changes in the salary structure at those levels in recognition of their increasing responsibility for judicial leadership and the supervision of the judicial system; 462W an increase from 1 April 2000 of 3.3 per cent. in the maxima of the pay ranges within which individual salaries are set for senior military personnel.

The Government have decided to accept these recommendations. Their cost will be met within existing Departmental Expenditure Limits.

Pay increases for Members of Parliament and Ministers are linked automatically to the increase in pay bands for the senior civil service. Their pay entitlement will therefore increase from 1 April 2000 by 2.9 per cent.