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Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

I am sorry, but other hon. Members have raised many issues, which I want to address. We are all grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Warley (Mr. Spellar) for his work as chairman of the advisory panel on Members' allowances. It was evident how clearly he understands the issues. He made it clear that we do not envisage a permanently sitting SSRB, and that we would move back to examining mechanisms if the comparators collapsed, as the previous one did. As has already been said, the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (David Maclean) is a distinguished and experienced member of the Members Estimate Committee and we are all grateful to him for his work. He asked about the involvement of the Members Estimate Committee and stressed its importance, which we accept. The Leader of the House would welcome the Members Estimate Committee producing and publishing a memorandum for the Baker review. Of course, after Sir John's review has reported, the MEC can make its further views clear to the House, and individual members of that Committee, like all other hon. Members, will be free to table any amendments to Sir John's proposals that they believe appropriate. My hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Linda Gilroy) spoke about the important work of our staff and the importance of paying them properly. Let me remind her that all hon. Members are already required to review the pay of their staff every year. However, I am sure that all hon. Members agreed with her point.