Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 September 2024 to Question 2631 on Civil Service: Pay, what estimate she has made of the potential cost of the civil service pay award for 2024-25 (a) in total and (b) for senior civil service staff; and whether she has had discussions with the Office for Budget responsibility on the estimated cost of that pay award.

Pay for civil servants outside of the Senior Civil Service is not set centrally; rather, departments and bodies have freedom to make decisions on pay within the parameters of the Pay Remit Guidance published annually by the Cabinet Office. The Pay Remit Guidance for 2024/5 can be found using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pay-remit-guidance-2024-to-2025/civil-service-pay-remit-guidance-2024-to-2025

The Pay Remit Guidance sets a percentage maximum by which bodies can increase their average paybill. Each department will need to consider how they intend to apply the award to their workforce, before implementing it. The final cost of the civil service pay award for 2024/25 will not be confirmed until this is concluded.

Senior Civil Service pay is set on the basis of recommendations from the Senior Salaries Review Body, one of the Pay Review Bodies (PRB) which make recommendations on pay for many public sector workforces. The 2024-25 pay awards for PRB workforces, alongside a 5% maximum average award to the delegated Civil Service grades create an estimated further pressure of around £9 billion in 2024-25, on top of what the last government set aside for pay.

These 2024/25 pay announcements do not represent a change to the funding allocated to departments or to borrowing plans. Nonetheless, the Government’s full fiscal plans will be set out at the upcoming Budget and Spending Review on 30th October, accompanied by the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook.