Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill

Lord Sikka Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & Report stage & 3rd reading
Tuesday 14th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the Bill. However, I have a number of questions that I hope the Minister will be able to answer, as we have an opportunity to debate issues about payments to unpaid Ministers. Let me say at the beginning that it is understandable that, due to the complexities of the social world and related workload, the number of Ministers needs to be increased, but that does not necessarily mean that we will have better or more accountable government.

I like the idea of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and fully support ending the practice of unpaid Ministers. I am sure that the Minister would now like to extend that principle to the entire population. We have nearly 6 million, predominantly female, unpaid carers who provide vital support for the old, sick, disabled and unfortunate. Their labour reduces pressure on public services. When will they be paid a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work? Some 1.4 million carers receive carer’s allowance of £86.45 a week, which adds up to £12.35 a day. Can the Minister explain when the principle of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work will apply to carers? It is vital that it applies to everybody, not just to Ministers.

We also need transparency about the income and wealth of all Ministers. Disclosures in the Register of Members’ Interests are very limited. Over the years, there have been numerous scandals about the tax affairs of Government and shadow Ministers. One way of instilling public confidence in the institutions of government is to require Ministers to publish their tax returns. In recent years, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Deputy Prime Minister have published their tax returns, but that needs to be on a statutory rather than voluntary basis. It should apply to all Government and shadow Ministers and be extended to Members of this House and the other place.

There was a glimmer of hope in Labour’s Fair Tax Programme in 2019, which promised:

“Public filing of tax returns of wealthy individuals”,


but that pledge seems to have been ditched. In Norway, everyone’s tax return has been publicly available since 1814, which is a major reason why it has fewer tax and political scandals. The extension of tax transparency can help to avoid scandals and enhance confidence in the political system. I hope that the Minister will commit to introducing a Bill in Parliament that will facilitate tax transparency of ministerial incomes and wealth.

All too often, Government and shadow Ministers argue that worker salaries and salary increases should be related to increases in productivity. Of course, the allocation of productivity to each individual worker is highly problematic and very difficult to calculate, but that has not stopped Ministers pushing the idea. Can the Minister explain how the productivity of the newly paid or already paid Ministers is actually measured? Is there a mechanism? Can she share it with this House and the public at large? Can she publish the results so that people can then comment when they are asked to increase their productivity?