Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of inflation on public sector workers who have had their pay capped.

A range of factors are taken into consideration when formulating the government’s public sector pay policy including the impact on jobs, recruitment and retention, earnings in both the public and private sector and inflation. Government will continually assess that balance when considering public pay policy. The Government has introduced the National Living Wage and committed to raising the personal allowance further, to £12,500, by the end of this Parliament. By 2017-18, 1.3 million people on the lowest incomes will have been taken out of income tax altogether, and a typical taxpayer will pay over £1,000 less income tax, compared to 2010-11.