Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what was the cost of the administrative team supporting (1) the office of the Lord Speaker, and (2) the office of the Senior Deputy Speaker, for each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

The Lord Speaker’s Office is a team which is part of the wider Clerk of the Parliaments’ Office. The cost of the staff within the Lord Speaker’s Office over the last 10 financial years is as follows:

2011/12: £145,933

2012/13: £142,839

2013/14: £136,500

2014/15: £147,770

2015/16: £166,852

2016/17: £192,297

2017/18: £197,142

2018/19: £200,654

2019/20: £182,904

2020/21: £205,692

These figures include on-costs such as pension and National Insurance contributions.

As explained in my answer to HL3097, a number of other staff are also co-located with the Lord Speaker’s Office and provide support to the Lord Speaker alongside other duties, but their costs are not included within these figures as they are not formally part of the Lord Speaker’s Office.

The post of Senior Deputy Speaker was created in 2016. Since then the Senior Deputy Speaker has been supported by a Private Secretary (grade HL8). Since 2018, they have also been supported by an Assistant Private Secretary (grade HL6). Given the limited number of people who have held these posts it would not be appropriate to give a detailed breakdown of salary figures, but the mid-range average annual rates for posts across the Administration at the same grade, at current rates, are as follows:

Grade HL8 post (including on costs such as pension and NI contributions): £77,368

Grade HL6 post (including on costs such as pension and NI contributions): £46,748

In 2017 an apprentice also provided support to the Senior Deputy Speaker. Their costs included time spent supporting the Senior Deputy Speaker as well as training as part of the apprenticeship programme.

Additional support, such as diary management, has also been provided to the Senior Deputy Speaker by other staff, but this has been done alongside other duties so it is not possible to split out what proportion of staff time would have been spent supporting the Senior Deputy Speaker specifically.

For both the Lord Speaker and Senior Deputy Speaker, the figures outlined above are for the staffing costs only. There will be other costs associated with the running of these teams, such as stationery, computers and other costs, but as these have been accounted for as part of the costs of running the wider departments within which these teams sit, it is not possible to quantify what proportion of those costs would have been incurred in specific support of the Lord Speaker or Senior Deputy Speaker.