SLARC no more.

According to the Scottish Gov web site:

'...The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) is an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body set up in 2005. SLARC is a body corporate established under the provisions of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 to advise Scottish Ministers on the payment by Local Authorities of remuneration (including pensions), allowances and the reimbursement of expenses incurred by local authority councillors in accordance with criteria specified by Scottish Ministers from time to time. link here

According to the 'Herald, Scotland':

'LOCAL Government Minister Derek Mackay has been accused of disrespecting Parliament by effectively abolishing the vital watchdog that exposed "top-up" payments to councillors.'

'The three remaining members of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC)... have quit amid allegations of ministerial neglect.'

'A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "There are currently no significant issues about councillors' pay on which ministers require advice from SLARC - We therefore intend to stand SLARC down until such a time as we require it to undertake further review work."


The Parliamentary discussion is at section 5 of the page linked here


The most recent review - of Local Authority Councillors Remuneration produced by SLARC - that I can find is for 2010 (published March 2011) and can be found at the link here .  I am still in the process of reading this review, and it is very readable and interesting, with lots of juicy facts and figures.  It does seem that the Committee was proposing increased levels of remuneration for backbench councillors, senior councillors, Civic Heads and Council Leaders, according to the tables on pages 59 and 60 - a Council Leader in Highland for example going from 37,880 (2011 -2012 level) to 50,442. (Local Authority 'Bandings' apply.  The review notes that COSLA was in favour of raising salaries further, with the reasonable assumption in that case that councillors would not have other jobs - 3.41/3.42.

It will be interesting to see what will happen now to councillor roles and remuneration for those roles, but for me, not knowing much about this sort of thing it leaves a lot of questions:

Why was SLARC established in the first instance? I know what is says at the top of this post, but there must have been a need?

Who will undertake the remuneration reviews now?  

Will there be any more reviews?

How will councillors pay and the nature of their roles be determined?


"Answers on a postcard please"