Scottish Government
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Councillors remuneration
The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) has published its report on the review of councillors' remuneration.
The report has been sent to the Scottish Government for consideration.
The Government asked the Committee to consider the levels of all councillors' remuneration based on workload, roles and responsibilities and the changes in the delivery of council services, taking account of affordability and ensuring that the level of pay is not a barrier to encouraging a wider section of the community to serve as councillors.
SLARC recommends:
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Restoring the link to the median Scottish full time salary 2010 (£25,221)
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Recognising the significant responsibilities of leaders and senior councillors
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Recognising the similarities in the responsibilities of leaders in the smaller councils and eliminate the lowest band of council for leader and senior councillor remuneration purposes
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Stopping additional salary payments to councillors for serving on arms length external organisations
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Rejecting suggestions from councillors that pay should be linked to MSPs and the basic salary should be £25,000 per annum
Ian Livingstone, Chairman of SLARC, said
"This is our first fundamental review since 2005. The context of the review is very different to that when we were first commissioned to report in February 2010, and this has evolved sufficiently to impact upon our final recommendations.
"We have had to look at councillors' remuneration against an economic backcloth which has changed beyond recognition. We are suggesting the Government should consider our recommendations on pay alongside those of the Commission Report on Public Service Delivery to see if some of these recommendations could be self financing.
"There are areas where we believe the Government should act sooner, namely remuneration to councillors serving on Arms Length External Organisations (ALEOs), councillors serving on Joint Boards and Community Justice Authorities and councillors who are suspended from their duties.
"The current practice of paying additional sums to councillors for serving on ALEOs, often for doing a similar job as they did on council committees, completely undermines the integrity of the national remuneration scheme. For example, in July 2010, some 40 Glasgow city councillors were receiving an additional £260,000 for serving on ALEOs effectively spending an additional 41 per cent of the council's allocation for paying senior councillors under the approved national scheme."
