Consolidated list of provisions of the Resolutions of the House relating to expenditure charged to the Estimate for House of Commons: Members - Members Estimate Committee Contents


Annex 1

1  Members' salaries

GENERAL

1.1. Provision should be made for the payment of salaries to Members of the House. (29 May 1946)

1.2. The salary of a Member of this House should be increased from 1 April 2008, and from 1 April of each subsequent year, by an uprating formula which increases the salary by a percentage equal to the median of relevant increases for the following public sector groups:

senior military, holders of judicial office, very senior NHS managers, doctors and dentists, the Prison Service, NHS staff, school teachers, the Armed Forces, police officers, Local Government; non-Senior Civil Service staff in each of the Department for Work and Pensions, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office; and the Senior Civil Service.

1.3. The SSRB should conduct a review of Members' salaries in the first year of each new Parliament unless such a review has taken place within the preceding two years; at such a review the SSRB should consider either or both of:

a)  an adjustment to the salary, consistent with public sector pay policy, to reflect an assessment of the appropriate salary at that time relative to jobs of similar weight elsewhere in the public sector;

b)  as regards the public sector groups listed in paragraph 1.2 above, such amendments to the list as appear to it to be necessary to reflect changes in the pay setting arrangements for those groups;

to take effect from 1 April following the first meeting of the new Parliament.

1.4. Each year the SSRB chair should notify the Speaker of the change in salary (expressed as a percentage) and, on such notification to the Speaker, that change shall have effect, subject to any further notification given following a review under paragraph 1.3 above.

1.5. The Speaker should lay before the House:

a)  any notification received from the SSRB chair under paragraph 1.4 above; and

b)  any report from the SSRB following a review under paragraph 1.3 above. (3 July 2008)

1.6. In appropriate cases and in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, the House may impose a penalty of withholding a Member's salary for a specified period without suspending the Member. (26 June 2003)

CHAIRMEN OF SELECT COMMITTEES

1.7. The salary of a Member should be £14,366 per annum higher than the figure determined in accordance with the provision set out at paragraph 1.2 above in respect of any period during which he is the Chairman[2] of a select committee appointed under Standing Order No 152 (Select committees related to government departments), the Environmental Audit Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee, the Committee of Public Accounts, the Select Committee on Public Administration, the Regulatory Reform Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, the Administration Committee, the Finance and Services Committee, the Liaison Committee, the Procedure Committee, the Committee of Selection, the Committee on Standards and Privileges, the Committee on Members' Allowances, or a Committee of another name which exercises the functions of any of the Committees referred to above. (30 October 2003; 13 July 2005; 18 May 2006; 3 March 2009)

1.8. An additional salary payable to a Member in respect of service as a chairman of select committees shall be changed by the same percentage and from the same time as the salary of a Member. (3 July 2008)

1.9. The Speaker shall have authority to interpret the provisions set out at paragraph 1.7 above and to determine rules for their implementation. (30 October 2003)

CHAIRMEN OF GENERAL COMMITTEES

1.10. The salary of a Member should be higher by the amount specified in paragraph 1.12 below than the figure determined in accordance with the provision set out at paragraph 1.2 above in respect of any period[3] during which the Member has been nominated by the Speaker to act as a temporary chairman of committees in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order No 4 (Chairmen's Panel),[4] subject to paragraph 1.11 below.

1.11. There should be disregarded for the purpose of paragraph 1.10 above any period in respect of which the Member is receiving additional payment as Chairman of a select committee.

1.12. For a Member who has served on the Panel for less than one year, the additional amount should be £2,867; for a Member who has served on the Panel for at least one year but less than three years, the additional amount should be £8,045; for a Member who has served on the Panel for at least three years and less than five years, the additional amount should be £10,918; and for a Member who has served on the Panel for at least five years, the additional amount should be £14,366; and for the purposes of this paragraph length of service should include membership of the Panel before 1 November 2005 and should be calculated irrespective of breaks in service. (13 July 2005)

1.13. An additional salary payable to a Member in respect of service as a chairman of general committees shall be changed by the same percentage and from the same time as the salary of a Member. (3 July 2008)

1.14. The Speaker shall have authority to interpret these provisions. (13 July 2005)


2   The period begins with the day on which a Member becomes Chairman or with the beginning of the next session of Parliament, in the case of a Member who became Chairman before that time, and ends on the day a Member ceases to be Chairman (or, if he is Chairman of more than one such Committee, he ceases to be Chairman of the last of those Committees). Any period of less than 24 hours, and any period in respect of which the Member is entitled to an additional salary by virtue of any provision of the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975 are excluded from this provision. Back

3   A period begins on the day on which the Member is appointed to the Panel, or on 1 November 2005, whichever is later; and ends on the day in which the Member ceases to be a member of the Panel. Back

4   The Members nominated as temporary chairmen of committees, together with the Chairman of Ways and Means and the Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, constitute the Chairmen's Panel (Standing Order No. 4). Back


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2009
Prepared 1 April 2009