HM Treasury has increased the threshold for when salaries for new senior civil service appointments require approval from the chief secretary to the Treasury.
In refreshed guidance on senior pay controls, the Treasury has upped the threshold from £150,000 to £174,000.
The Treasury has also increased the point at which a performance-related bonus requires approval from the CST – currently Darren Jones – from £17,500 to £25,000.
The guidance applies to all public sector bodies that have been classified by the Office for National Statistics as central government, and includes, but is not limited to, appointments to the civil service, non-departmental public bodies, and public sector bodies that have not been administratively classified by the Cabinet Office.
For the purposes of the guidance, secondments are considered to be appointments, as are internal moves to a different post, and temporary promotions.
The guidance also says that appointments to public corporations are subject to the same thresholds when certain conditions come into play, such as it being a ministerial appointment and it being a role at chief executive level or which attracts a total remuneration package greater than that earned by the chief exec.
CST approval is also required for when existing staff reach or go above the threshold following contractual adjustments and changes to time commitments.
Annual pay awards, however, can be applied without CST approval if they are equal to or below 6%.
This is a change from the previous guidance, which allowed pay awards of up to 9% to be granted without CST approval.
The guidance update also includes a new section on exceptions, which says new approval is not needed if the role has had previous CST approval and: either the proposed new total remuneration and performance related pay are the same as or below what the incumbent receives; or the proposed new total remuneration and/or performance related pay involves an increase on the incumbent’s entitlement of no more than 2%.
When applying these exceptions, the salary of the last substantive post holder must be used, as interim postholders “may have varying terms and therefore may not be the correct benchmark for future appointments”. The guidance also says that, if agreement of the last substantive postholders salary was conditional (i.e., was approved by CST dependent on satisfying additional criteria) then CST approval should still be sought.
The guidance also says that, where exceptions are applied, the public sector body or sponsoring department must notify their HM Treasury spending team of their use of this flexibility within one month of the appointment being made.
Explaining the changes, an HM Treasury spokesperson said: “The previous threshold for senior civil servants’ salaries was set in 2017, and since then average pay across the private and public sector has risen.
“The new, below inflation, threshold rise would apply to a minority of senior civil servants and would be subject to rigorous scrutiny.”