---

Administration Committee

I think that we should cross that bridge when the Government make such a proposal. I shall not be diverted away from the motion before the House today. My right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) makes an important point. The Leader of the House does not get a pay rise when he has been in his job for a year, and neither do the Speaker, the Deputy Speakers, Select Committee Chairmen or MPs. So this proposal represents a new dimension in regard to pay in the House, and I am not entirely comfortable with it. A paid environment requires a formal commitment of time by members of the Chairmen’s Panel. The SSRB is quite clear about that. Indeed, certain elements that are missing from the Government’s proposals include two specific recommendations by the SSRB, which have perhaps been addressed implicitly, although not explicitly. Its recommendation No. 6 states:"““However in this case it will in our view be important for the House to be clear, before payment is introduced, what administrative or other measures . . . are to be put in place to ensure that the different levels of reward are correlated as far as possible with the different contributions of Panel members.””" Recommendation No. 8 states that"““before payment of Standing Committee Chairmen is introduced, the House should give consideration to the question of Chairmen’s outside interests, and payment for activities outside the House.””" The Leader of the House has not addressed those recommendations today and I would be grateful if the Deputy Leader of the House could clarify in detail what is happening in that regard.