The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron)
The 35th report of the Review Body on Senior Salaries (SSRB) is being published today. This makes recommendations about the pay of the senior civil service (SCS), senior military officers, the judiciary and very senior NHS managers. Copies have been laid in the Vote Office, the Printed Paper Office and the Libraries of both Houses. I am grateful to the chairman and members of the review body for their work on this year’s report.
While we are mindful of the need to ensure that we are able to recruit, retain and motivate staff with the right skills and experience, it is important in the current economic climate that senior public servants continue to show leadership in the exercise of pay restraint.
Senior Civil Service
The Government have accepted the recommendation to consider which elements of the Northern Ireland senior civil service (SCS) pay model may be appropriate for the home SCS, but cannot give any commitments about implementation at this time.
The Government have accepted the recommendations on minimum salaries for SCS pay bands 2 and 3 but has not accepted the recommendations for pay bands 1 and 1A.
The Government have not accepted the recommendation to give all staff a 1% increase and to increase the maximum of each pay band by 1%. We have also not accepted the recommendation to retain the existing caps on the size of individual non-consolidated performance awards.
Senior Military Officers
The Government have accepted the recommendation of an increase of 1% to base military salaries for all 2, 3 and 4-star officers.
Judiciary
The Government have accepted the recommendation that the salaries of the judiciary should be increased by 1%.
As a result of the current fiscal challenge and public sector pay policy it is not possible at present to respond to the SSRB’s latest recommendations about the major review. The Government note the proposals but will not be able to respond at this time.
Very Senior NHS Managers
The Government have accepted the recommendation to increase the pay of those NHS very senior managers within the remit of the SSRB by 1%.
The Government have not accepted the recommendation that all very senior managers should be migrated to the terms of the pay framework published in May 2012 as we do not think this is the best use of scarce resources. The new pay framework is clear that it must apply to all new appointments and that where very senior managers are employed in the same organisation on different frameworks, employers should undertake an equal pay review and remedy any inequalities identified. This satisfies all of the requirements of employment law and good practice.
The Government therefore have also rejected the recommendation to suspend performance-related pay in 2013-14 as we believe this plays a useful role in the recruitment, retention and motivation of very senior managers and should continue as a feature of the pay system.
Other Review Body reports for 2013-14
Separate statements from the Secretaries of State for Justice, Health and Defence will also be laid today on the reports of the Prison Service Pay Review Body, the Doctors and Dentists Review Body, the NHS Pay Review Body and the Armed Forces Pay Review Body in respect of pay for the relevant workforces for 2013-14. The Government’s response to those reports is consistent with the need for senior public servants to show leadership in the exercise of pay restraint.