The Review Body on Senior Salaries makes recommendations for the pay arrangements of senior civil servants (SCS) (including the Prime Minister, Ministerial posts and MPs), senior military officers and the judiciary. This is their 29th report which contains recommendations applicable from 1 April 2007.

This is the 31st report on senior salaries (Cm. 7556, ISBN 9780101755627) and is presented by the Review Body on Senior Salaries established in 1993. The Review Body provides independent advice to the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor and the Secretaries of State for Defence and Health on the remuneration of holders of judicial office; senior civil servants; senior officers of the armed forces; senior managers in the NHS (chief executives, executive directors) and other equivalent public appointments. The publication is divided into 5 chapters, with 9 appendices. The chapters cover the following areas: Chapter 1: Introduction and economic evidence; Chapter 2: The senior civil service; Chapter 3: Senior officers in the armed forces; Chapter 4: The judiciary; Chapter 5: Very senior managers in the National Health Service. There are 19 recommedations set out over these 5 chapters, including: that senior civil service base pay be increased by 2.1%; that permanent secretaries' base pay be increased by 2.1%; that the MoD produce further evidence on the job evaluation exercise of the senior military, including 4-star officers; that administrations in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make collection of information in job weight a priority and continue work with the judiciary to collect meaningful data to show whether job weight at different levels is changing over time; that from 1 April 2009 the pay for Very Senior Managers in the NHS should increase by 2.4%. The publication sets out in various tables the recommended salaries for the above holders.

This book addresses an important element of public governance, providing a systematic investigation of rewards for working in the public sector, and looks at the impacts of the choices of reward structures. It will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative public administration, international politics and government worldwide.

This is the thirty-fourth report on senior salaries with the remit of providing independent advice to the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for Health on the remuneration of holders of judicial office; senior civil servants; senior officers of the armed forces; very senior managers in the NHS; and other such public appointments. However it covers the second year of the Government's pay freeze for public sector workers paid over £21,000 a year. Therefore, no recommendations for the relevant remit groups could be made. The Review Body report concentrates accordingly on any evidence about recruitment, retention or motiviation, and sets out its views on changes it would like to see in the pay and performance management systems for the remit groups, systems which are nearly all currently under review.

This report examines the practice of recruiting externally to the senior civil service (SCS). Outside recruitment has been used to fill skills shortages and to bring new perspectives to government, but has also been criticised for potentially diluting core civil service values and for being poor value for money. PASC concludes that the senior civil service has depended too heavily on external recruitment in recent years, and should now take steps to reduce its reliance on outside appointments. PASC also found that external recruits do not appear to perform better than career civil servants - despite being paid more, on average - and many leave civil service employment relatively quickly. Nonetheless, given the existence of skills gaps and the other benefits that external recruits can bring, PASC believes that there will continue to be a place for outside appointments in civil service recruitment. PASC further concludes that the extent of recent external recruitment is symptomatic of a wider concern: the ability of the civil service to identify its current and future skills needs, and to plan effectively to meet those needs. PASC recommends that the emphasis of civil service employment policy should be on developing its own people and skills, rather than seeking to draw these in from outside.

The Senior Salaries Review Body's remit now covers certain senior managers in the National Health Service, as well as leaders in the law, the armed forces and the Civil Service. The Body detects signs that the pay of these groups is falling increasingly behind that of comparable groups in the wider public and private sectors, and that is beginning to cause problems of recruitment, retention and morale. The increases proposed are moderate, but the report stresses that it would be against the public interest in the longer term if the quality or performance of the state's senior managers and judges were to deteriorate.

The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) was asked for an interim report, ahead of the 2010 Budget, on senior remuneration in the public sector. It is critical to ensure public confidence in this area: confidence that high salaries are not being paid where they are not merited; and, where they are paid, confidence that they are justified by rigorous processes and evidence of sustained high performance. The SSRB proposals are intended to make a significant contribution to providing reassurance. The public sector is complex and so are the arrangements for pay and it has been difficult to gather comprehensive and consistent data. But it is estimated that over 25,000 people in the public sector are earning over £100,000 a year and many over £150,000. The first step is to provide clear rules through a code of practice, and this report includes a draft code which should be opened to consultation. The SSRB would like to see the code finalised by the end of July 2010 with a view to implementation by the end of 2010. Implementation would be the responsibility of the bodies in each sector. The SSRB also advocates developing a structure of pay ranges for senior public sector pay. A set of reference ranges would provide organisations or clusters of organisations with a pay framework that is currently lacking. Part C of the report details progress on a review of chief executive pay in Non Departmental Public Bodies. The methodology used could be applied more widely.