asked the Minister for the Civil Service (1) why the top-paid civil servants have been allowed salary increases in excess of the Government incomes policy; and whether he will take action to prevent these increases being applied in the same way as with other lower-paid workers;(2) whether, in view of the Prime Minister's statement to the miners on Saturday, 10th June concerning militancy and the need for wage restraint, he will stop the latest salary increases of top civil servants and their retrospective effects.

All pay increases for civil servants have been strictly in accordance with the Government's pay guidelines set out in Cmnd 6882. These permit a start to be made on tackling the most serious anomalies, provided that the settlement as a whole is within the guidelines. This was so with the pay settlement from 1st April 1978 for the whole non-industrial Civil Service up to assistant secretary level, to which I assume my hon. Friend is referring.