HL Deb 10 October 2000 vol 617 cc19-20WA
Baroness Howells of St Davids

asked the Leader of the House:

What plans there are to review the arrangements for the pay of honourable Members and Ministers. [HL4079]

The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Jay of Paddington)

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.

"In 1996 the Senior Salaries Review Body undertook a comprehensive review of the pay of Members of Parliament. One of your recommendations, which the then Government accepted, was that pay should be reviewed every three years, beginning in 2000.

You are about to start work on that review. I am therefore writing to confirm that the Government would like to see the following areas covered in your report:

  1. (i) the salary of Members of the House of Commons
  2. (ii) the salaries of Ministers and other office-holders
  3. (iii) the rate and structure of Peers' expenses allowances, including the secretarial allowance for Ministers and other paid office-holders in the House of Lords
  4. WA20
  5. (iv) the Office Costs Allowance in the House of Commons.

In addition, I should be grateful if the SSRB would consider the present system of calculating the Resettlement Grant.

I look forward to receiving your recommendations early next year".