MPs' salaries — Increase with Public Sector Earnings Index — rejected — 3 Jul 2008 at 15:05

The majority of MPs voted against the motion:^[1]

• This House notes Sir John Baker's Review of Parliamentary Pay and Allowances (Cm 7416), and is of the opinion that the recommendations in the Review for the annual salary of a Member of this House to be increased by reference to a linkage to the Public Sector Average Earnings Index combined with regular reviews of the salary and the link should be implemented, such that--
• from 1st April 2008 and from 1st April of each subsequent year a Member's salary should be increased by the percentage increase in the 3 month average Public Sector Average Earnings Index for January of that year relative to the figure for January of the previous year;
• 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;
• an additional salary payable to a Member under Resolutions of this House in respect of service as a chairman of select or general committees should be changed by the same percentage and from the same time as the salary of a Member.

An alternative motion proposed which substituted highlighted section with:^[2]

• ... 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;

A vote was called for this new motion, but since no Tellers were put forward, the Speaker declared that the Ayes had it without completing the vote.^[3]

The reasoning behind using this cluster of values is given here.

• [1] Harriet Harman MP, House of Commons, 3 July 2008
• [2] Hariett Harman MP, House of Commons, 3 July 2008
• [3] Mr Speaker, House of Commons, 3 July 2008

Debate in Parliament | Source |