The perceived link between senior public servant’s pay and the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary has been criticised by an influential Commons Committee as "arbitrary" and "too crude" to be meaningful.
In a report published today, the Public Administration Select Committee said that, while there was an acknowledged need for civil service pay restraint in the current economic climate, the system as it stood was not working. The Coalition Government needed instead to move to a "a proper system to assess the salaries to be paid for public appointments to ensure we attract and retain the best-qualified, most independent and most effective appointees".
Bernard Jenkin MP, the Committee’s chair, explained: “We support pay restraint and using the Prime Minister’s salary as a cap is useful to get the message across. But it is damaging to use this as an arbitrary cap. 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."
The study concluded that a cap of £142,500 risked discouraging the recruitment and retention of the best talent in the public sector. As a result, the Government should implement a proper system to assess reasonable salary levels in line with Will Hutton’s review of fair pay.
The report also recommended that the Government reduce its current dependency on outside ‘head-hunter’ firms in order to cut recruitment costs by strengthening Whitehall’s in-house expertise instead.
In-house expertise
The UK likewise required a government ‘Centre of Excellence’ to make public appointments, which would have the necessary skills to widen the candidate pool. "Substantial savings" could also be made by using and developing the capabilities of existing HR teams in government departments and by creating the Centre of Excellence.
The post of top talent manager in Whitehall (Director General for Civil Service Capability) has effectively been abolished and its functions dispersed, the study said. But it recommended that the post be re-established in order to act as a focus for the management and recruitment of senior talent in the Civil Service and for other public appointments.
The post of top talent manager in Whitehall (Director General for Civil Service Capability) has effectively been abolished and its functions dispersed, the study said. But it recommended that the post be re-established in order to act as a focus for the management and recruitment of senior talent in the Civil Service and for other public appointments.
"We are puzzled as to why the government would abolish the post of DG for Civil Service Capability and disperse its functions. This is not a function which can be run by the HR director of another department," the report said.
"Assigning HR responsibilities over the senior civil service to a department outside the Cabinet Office will undermine the ability to deliver the role as effectively."
As a result, the move should be reversed, with a focus instead on "retaining and developing these skills and expertise ‘in house’. This, with a Centre of Excellence, would reduce the dependency on recruitment consultants and attendant costs to the taxpayer”, it added.
Jenkin said: “The other facet of value for money is performance. We have also recommended that the Commissioner be given a new remit to review the Departments’ appraisal systems to ensure that public appointees are performing – and if they are not, to ensure they are not just routinely re-appointed."
Jenkin said: “The other facet of value for money is performance. We have also recommended that the Commissioner be given a new remit to review the Departments’ appraisal systems to ensure that public appointees are performing – and if they are not, to ensure they are not just routinely re-appointed."
