More Ministers To Be Paid Under Government Payroll Reforms
2 min read
Exclusive: The number of paid ministerial roles is to increase as part of new government reforms to be announced on Thursday.
The government is set to bring forward legislation permitting an additional 11 ministerial roles to come with a salary, PoliticsHome understands.
The reforms, which are expected to be brought forward today by Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds, are designed to bring the total number of paid ministerial roles in line with the average size of government since 2010, which is around 120 ministers.
The current Keir Starmer government has had 120 ministers on average. The biggest in recent times was that of former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak, whose government averaged 123.
Under existing law, which legislation announced today will amend, governments are limited to 109 paid ministers.
As things stand, 12 ministers in the Labour government serve without pay.
The new salaries are expected to be largely allocated to ministers in the House of Lords, who are often seen as experts in their fields.
The government is expected to argue that it is not right that a number of ministerial roles favour those who have the financial means to fulfil them without a salary.
A government source told PoliticsHome: "The current Cabinet has the highest proportion of state-educated members in history, and the Prime Minister believes that ministerial office should not be reserved for those wealthy enough to fund it for themselves."
Ministers will also argue that the reforms will help improve transparency by ending the practice of 'borrowing' whips' salaries to fund departmental roles, which successive governments have used when organising their payroll.
The salaries themselves are expected to remain at the same level. As things stand, a secretary of state in the House of Commons receives an annual salary of £67,505 in addition to what they are paid for their role as an MP, while a junior minister gets £31,680. In the Lords, it is £104,360 and £81,485 respectively.
The government estimates that the reforms will increase money spent on ministerial salaries per year by £600,000-£850,000.
Tim Durrant, Programme Director at the Institute for Government think tank, said government should be clearer about why it was expanding the payroll to this degree.
“The government has not explained why it wants to increase the number of paid ministerial posts by 11, a more than 10 per cent increase.
"Ensuring full-time ministers in the Lords can be paid makes sense. But this is a bigger change that increases the government’s 'payroll vote' and implies a greater amount of centralisation.”
