Act
The act set out salaries for government ministers and certain members of the opposition. Although applying to "ministers" it did not define ministers and indeed excluded two of them: the Lord Chancellor and Attorney General for England and Wales. The act first gave the salary for the prime minister, which was set at £10,000 a year. [n 1] This was only the second time that the Prime Minister had been mentioned in an Act of Parliament, after the Chequers Estate Act 1917, which granted them a country residence at Chequers. [1]
The other officials covered by the act fell into two categories – heads of department, and under-secretaries. Heads of certain departments, such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, received £5,000 [n 2] a year regardless of their membership in the Cabinet, while others such as the Lord Privy Seal received £3,000, [n 3] with an increase to £5,000 if they come to sit in the Cabinet. The under-secretaries were granted £3,000 a year if Chief Whip, £2,000 [n 4] if Financial Secretary to the Treasury, £1,500 [n 5] if Financial Secretary to the Admiralty or similar and £1,000 [n 6] if Assistant Postmaster-General. The act also gave a pension of £2,000 a year to any individual who had served as Prime Minister, and a salary of £2,000 to the Leader of the Opposition. [1]
The act is notable for several reasons; it was the first Act of Parliament to directly deal with ministerial salaries, and also the first act to provide a salary for the Prime Minister, [2] and for the Leader of the Opposition, whose duties it defined. [1] It was the first statute to formally recognise the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Leader of the Opposition. [3] The act was repealed by the Ministerial Salaries Consolidation Act 1965. [4]
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