Review Body on Senior Salaries (Hansard, 9 February 2001)

§ The Prime Minister

The 2001 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 in the Vote Office and the Library of the House. I am grateful to the chairman and the members of the review body for their work.

The main recommendations of the review body are: an increase from 1 April 2001 of 3 per cent. in the minimum and maximum values of each of the pay bands for the senior civil service. Within the bands, Departments will determine the individual awards on the basis of performance. As last year, a further 0.4 per cent. of the total senior civil service pay bill should be made available to fund additional performance awards for the most senior staff, whose pay has fallen well behind comparable remuneration elsewhere; an increase from 1 April 2001 of 3.7 per cent. in judicial salaries; and an increase from 1 April 2001 of 3.7 per cent. in the maxima of the pay ranges within which individual salaries are set for senior military officers.

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 2001 by 3 per cent.