Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes in pay differentials between (a) E1 and (b) E2 grade salaries on (i) recruitment and (ii) progression.

In November 2022 the Chancellor announced that the National Living Wage would rise from £9.50 per hour to £10.42 per hour. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) uplifted the affected salaries of staff to ensure compliance with the new rates from April 2023.

This pay rise has affected a number of MOD grades and has led to several grades being paid the same, including Administrative Assistant (AA), Administrative Officer (AO) and Skill Zones 1 and 2 employees. Officials and teams across the department continue to work to understand what this will mean for those in the affected grades and a working group has been set up to consider the impacts of this rise in National Living wage. Any updates will be communicated with all staff in due course.

Whilst Defence is pleased that employees of the Department have received this increase to their pay, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and the Civilian Personnel area appreciate that the compression of our grades will have implications. It is a priority for us to communicate with colleagues directly impacted as soon as possible.

In addition to this, the Government recently published the pay remit guidance which allows departments to make average pay awards up to 4.5% with an additional flexibility to pay up to a further 0.5% targeted at the lowest paid within the Department. An addendum to this pay remit has also been published, inviting departments to provide a one-off payment of £1,500 in recognition of the pressures felt during the 2022-23 pay year. The Department is currently working to understand what this means for Defence in 2023 and updates on this will be communicated to staff at the earliest available opportunity.