Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average percentage pay rise was of Executive Team staff at the Information Commissioner's Office since June 2014; and what average pay increase has been proposed for non-executive staff excluding buy-out of contractual progression.

In July 2014 the Executive Team of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was restructured and reduced from the Commissioner plus four Directors to the Commissioner plus three Directors. As a part of the restructure, the Remuneration Committee of the ICO’s non-executive Management Board reviewed the salaries of the remaining Directors and made recommendations to the Commissioner based on the changes to individual Director’s responsibilities that resulted from the restructure. The mean percentage increase was 11.7% but as a result of the restructure the overall spend on Executive salaries has been reduced.

The ICO is subject to the 1% public sector pay cap but it is the ICO’s intention to focus the money available under the cap on those staff who will not benefit from the buyout of contractual progression, providing a pay increase of 3% for most of these staff.