“designed to increase MLA pay to 75% of the salary of an MP”
BBC political editor Mark Devenport has a report [and a blog post - Ed] on the Senior Salaries Review Body’s recommendations on MLA salaries and expenses and read the somewhat different emphasis in David Gordon’s report too. [new link] Or you can read the actual report [pdf file]. From the Belfast Telegraph
Assembly members currently receive £43,381 a year — some 70% of an MP’s salary. The SSRB concluded that this should be gradually raised to 75% of the Commons level over a four year period. The proposed package would involve annual £500 additions for the first three years, and an estimated £1,500 in the final year. During this period, they would also receive the same percentage annual increases as MPs. The proposals would mean a 3.53% pay rise this year — the first £500 payment plus the latest MP rise of 2.38%. The overall package, if approved, would involve a much more significant increase over the full four years. Phased payments totalling £3,000 would put 6.9% on the current MLA salary. And if MPs receive 2% annual rises during this time, the estimated total package could be worth in the region of 15%.
Updated below the fold.Adds While the difference in emphasis is not contradictory Mark Devenport’s report clearly confused the BBC NI online team. Here’s how his report was précised on the main NI news page
Update And see related articles in the Belfast Telegraph here.
The independent study said: “We see no reason for MLAs who are also Members of Parliament to be paid more than their Westminster salary.”
Jeepers, at those rates I wonder would Robinson give me a cut if I answered a few awkward questions for him.
I think that we should make our MLAs draw short straws and that half of them should then be be boiled down into kinda stock cubes which we would make into ‘Stormont Bovril’.
We would then distribute it to the old people to feed them and keep them warm in the winter.
A Practical Plan!
Good Idea, That’s nearly a good idea. However, the old people might get warmer if they spread it on like those fellas that swim the English channel.
70% of an MPs salary for 5% of the actual work an MP does. i think they are doing pretty well…
108 of them whereas the Westminster parliament has some 650.