Ministerial Salaries and Members' Pensions Act 1965

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1965 c. 11


Ministerial Salaries andMembers' Pensions Act 1965

1965 CHAPTER 11

An Act to prescribe new rates of salary for Ministers of the Crown, for the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, and for Mr. Speaker; to authorise the payment of salary to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords and the Chief Opposition Whips in both Houses; to establish a contributory pensions scheme for Members of the House of Commons; to make further provision with respect to the pensions of Prime Ministers; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[29th March 1965]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Ministerial and other Official Salaries

Part I

Ministerial and other Official Salaries

S-1 Revised rates of salaries for Ministers.

1 Revised rates of salaries for Ministers.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the annual amount of the salary payable to the holder of any Ministerial office specified in Schedule 1 to this Act shall be the amount stated in relation to that office in the second column of that Schedule.

(2) The annual amount of the salary payable under this section—

(a ) to a Minister of State or the Chief Secretary to the Treasury; or

(b ) to the holder of the office of Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Paymaster General when not a Member of the Cabinet,

shall be such as the First Lord of the Treasury may determine, not exceeding in any case the amount stated in the second column of the said Schedule.

(3) For the purposes of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 , all salaries the amount of which is regulated by this section shall be treated as payable under that Act; but the sums payable out of moneys provided by Parliament under section 7 of that Act in respect of the salary of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster shall be reduced by the amount of the salary payable to him otherwise than out of moneys so provided in respect of his office.

(4) Any Minute of the Treasury regulating the remuneration of the Law Officers of the Crown which is in force at the commencement of this Act shall have effect as if the relevant salary stated in Schedule 1 to this Act were substituted for the salary specified in the Minute.

S-2 Salaries of Leader and Chief Whip of Opposition in both Houses.

2 Salaries of Leader and Chief Whip of Opposition in both Houses.

(1) The salary payable under the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons shall be 4,500 instead of 3,000.

(2) There shall be paid under and subject to the said Act of 1937—

(a ) to the Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Commons, an annual salary of 3,750;

(b ) to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, an annual salary of 2,000;

(c ) to the Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Lords, an annual salary of 1,500.

(3) The following provisions of the said Act of 1937, that is to say, the proviso to section 5 (provision against duplication of salary and pension under that Act) and section 7 (provision for payment of salaries and pension) shall apply to the salaries payable by virtue of subsection (2) of this section as they apply to the salary payable to the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

(4) In this section—

‘Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons’ means the Leader of the Opposition as defined by section 10 of the said Act of 1937;

‘Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords’ means that member of the House of Lords who is for the time being Leader in that House of the party in opposition to Her Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Commons;

‘Chief Opposition Whip’ means, in relation to either House of Parliament, the person for the time being nominated as such by the Leader of the Opposition in that House.

(5) Any decision by the Speaker of the House of Commons under section 10(3) of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 that any party is or was the party in opposition to Her Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in that House shall apply for the purposes of this section as it applies for the purposes of that Act; and if any doubt arises as to who is or was at any material time the Leader in the House of Lords of that party, the question shall be decided for the purposes of this section by the Lord Chancellor, and his decision, certified in writing under his hand, shall be final and conclusive.

S-3 Mr. Speaker's salary.

3 Mr. Speaker's salary.

3. The salary payable to Mr. Speaker under section 1 of the House of Commons (Speaker) Act 1832shall be 8,500 instead of 5,000.

II The Members' Contributory Pensions Scheme

Part II

The Members' Contributory Pensions Scheme

S-4 Preliminary and administrative provisions.

4 Preliminary and administrative provisions.

(1) The provisions of this Part of this Act shall have effect for establishing a scheme of contributory pensions, financed by deductions from Parliamentary salary and by Exchequer contributions, for Members of the House of Commons who cease to be such after the commencement of this Part of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this Part of this Act there shall be constituted a fund, to be known as the Members' Contributory Pension Fund, which shall be under the control and management of the Trustees hereinafter mentioned; and all pensions payable under this Part of this Act or other sums to be paid by the Trustees thereunder shall be paid out of the Fund, and all sums received by the Trustees shall be paid into the Fund.

(3) Trustees of the Fund shall be appointed and may be removed by Order of the House of Commons, and the provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act (being provisions corresponding with the provisions in that behalf of the House of Commons Members' Fund Act 1939 ) shall have effect with respect to the number, qualification and proceedings of the Trustees, the distribution of functions between the Custodian Trustee and the Managing Trustees and the administration of the Fund.

(4) The Trustees of the Fund may invest any property in their hands, whether at the time in a state of investment or not, in any investments whatsoever and wheresoever and may also from time to time vary any such investments.

(5) Subsection (2) of section 385 of the Income Tax Act 1952 (exemption from tax in respect of income of the House of Commons Members' Fund) shall apply in relation to the Fund.

S-5 Contributions from Parliamentary remuneration.

5 Contributions from Parliamentary remuneration.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, there shall be deducted from each payment of salary made pursuant to any resolution of the House of Commons relating to the remuneration of Members, being a payment made in respect of any period after 16th October 1964, a sum calculated at the rate of 150 per annum; and all sums so deducted shall be paid into the Fund.

(2) No sums shall be deducted under this section from salaries payable pursuant to any such resolution to Mr. Speaker, or to any person who is or has been Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, in respect of any period after the date on which he is elected or appointed as such.

(3) If any salary from which a deduction is required to be made under this section is not drawn, there shall be set aside, out of moneys available for the payment, a sum equal to the relevant deduction, and any sum so set aside shall be dealt with as if it were a sum so deducted.

(4) Any sums which, pursuant to any resolution of the House of Commons of the present Session, have been deducted from payments of salary for any period before the passing of this Act, or set aside out of moneys available for the payment of any such salary, shall, in so far as they would have fallen to be so deducted or set aside under this section if it had been in force at the material time, be treated as sums deducted or set aside under this section; and any sum so deducted which would not in that event have fallen to be deducted under this section shall be paid to the Member from whose salary it was deducted.

S-6 Exchequer contributions.

6 Exchequer contributions.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, there shall be paid into the Fund out of moneys provided by Parliament in each year—

(a ) an Exchequer contribution of an amount equal to the total of the sums payable into the Fund in that year under section 5 of this Act; and

(b ) an additional contribution (the initial deficiency contribution) of the amount prescribed by or under this section.

(2) The annual amount of the initial deficiency contribution shall in the first instance be 132,000; and the contribution shall, subject to subsection (4) below, be payable for the period of twenty-five years from the commencement of the Act, and no longer.

(3) The Government Actuary shall from time to time, as requested by the Treasury, make a report to the Trustees and the Treasury on the amount of the deficiency in the Fund resulting from the inclusion in the service which is reckonable for pension under the following provisions of this Act of service in respect of which no contributions were payable under section 5 of this Act or subsection (1)(a ) of this section.

(4) On the receipt of any such report, the Treasury may by order made by statutory instrument increase or reduce the amount prescribed by this section as the annual amount of the initial deficiency...

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