Mandarins' pay should not be capped at PM's salary

19 Oct 11
MPs have said that the prime minister's salary level is 'too crude an instrument to be useful' in setting a cap on senior public sector pay.
By Mark Smulian | 19 October 2011

MPs have said that the prime minister’s salary level is ‘too crude an instrument to be useful’ in setting a cap on senior public sector pay.

In a report published today, the public administration select committee concludes that the government’s decision to limit public servants’ pay to the £142,500 a year paid to David Cameron ‘risks discouraging the recruitment and retention of the best talent’.

Committee chair Bernard Jenkin said: ‘Taking into account associated benefits the prime minister receives, his effective pay is actually much higher, so benchmarking against his salary is not meaningful. We say that this is too crude an instrument to be useful.’

Jenkin called instead for ‘a proper system to assess the salaries to be paid for public appointments’.

The report, Public appointments: regulation,recruitment and pay, is the committee’s response to Sir David Normington’s review of public recruitment, begun after his appointment in April as commissioner for public appointments.

The MPs are also critical of the government’s decision to scrap the post of director general for civil service capability and disperse its duties around Whitehall.

Government needed the expertise to find and recruit suitable candidates and ‘we are puzzled therefore as to why the government would abolish the post’, Jenkin said.

‘This is not a function which can be run by the HR director of another department.’

Losing this centre of expertise could make the government too reliant on costly recruitment ‘head hunters’, the committee warns.

It says too much money is spent on them and their use should be ‘the exception not the rule’.

It adds: ‘Substantial savings could be made through utilising and developing the capabilities of existing human resources units in government departments.’

The report welcomes Normington’s proposal to establish a centre of excellence in recruitment and supports his efforts to simplify public sector recruitment, noting that ‘some people are deterred from applying for public appointments because of the bureaucratic nature of the process’.

The committee also proposes that Normington be given a new remit to review departmental appraisal systems and ‘ensure that public appointees are performing’.

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