From St Mary Constable Juliette Gallichan, chairman, Privileges and Procedures Committee.
FOLLOWING the publication of the letter from Brendan Brady (JEP, 9 July) entitled ‘What’s happening with Members’ pay?’ I thought it might be helpful to your readers for me to answer that question.
In 2004 the States agreed that an independent body should be established to make recommendations on the level of remuneration for elected States Members.
The terms of reference for the States Members Remuneration Review Body were subsequently agreed and one of the most important decisions taken by the States at that time was that the Review Body’s recommendations on the actual level of remuneration should be implemented automatically, without the need for a States debate, provided that they were not challenged within one month of being published.
This system has been in place since 2005 and, on every occasion, the Review Body’s recommendations have been implemented through this default mechanism without the need for a States debate.
On 12 June the Review Body’s final recommendations for the years 2009 and 2010 were presented to the States and, as the one month period has now passed, those recommendations will be implemented automatically.
The Review Body recommended that the interim increase of £1,000 a year that had already been put in place for 2009 should remain (a 2.3% increase from the 2008 level) and the Review Body then recommended a total pay freeze for 2010.
This means that States Members’ remuneration will remain at its current level of £40,382 plus an expenses allowance of £3,650 until 31 December 2010.
The Review Body noted in its recommendations that the Council of Ministers had proposed a freeze on all public sector pay and drew attention to the different ‘pay years’ that apply for the public sector and States Members.
The proposed public sector freeze is for the period June 2009 to May 2010 whereas the pay freeze for States Members, although it will begin in January 2010, five months after the proposed public sector freeze, will last five months longer, until December 2010.
Morier House,
Halkett Place,
St Helier.
