MSPs salaries for the next financial year will increase to more than £70,000, a Holyrood committee has heard.
At a meeting of the Finance and Public Administration Committee on Tuesday, Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw (below) – representing the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body – announced the move, which will see pay rise to £72,195 for representatives.
The 6.7% increase (which comes to an extra £4533) will take effect on April 1 and follows an increase of 1.5% last year and 3.4% the year before.
SNP ministers have declined pay rises since 2008, with the leftover funds made available for public spending.
Salaries for government roles are calculated on top of the regular MSP salary, so the pay freeze does not apply to MSPs without a ministerial position.
Individual MSPs who do not have a government role can decide whether to decline the pay rise.
A Freedom of Information request from 2022 found that as of March 31, 2021, £1,167,573 had been made available for public spending as a result of Scottish Government ministers declining an increase.
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This year, salaries were based on increases to average weekly earnings (AWE), after previously increasing based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE).
A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament said: “The Scottish Parliament severed the link to MPs’ pay back in 2016 so that MSPs’ pay rises reflected public sector increases across Scotland, based on the ASHE index.
“In recent years, ASHE has been increasingly out of sync with other wage inflation indices to the point that MSPs received 1.5% last year when general inflation was running at 10%.
“Prior to that, MSPs received 3.4% in 2022-23 and 0% in 2021-22.
“This year, AWE will be applied to MSPs’ pay, meaning a rise of 6.7% and a salary rate of £72,195 from April 1, 2024.”
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