Following approval by both Houses under the draft affirmative procedure, the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2026 amends the statutory pay framework created by the 1975 Act. The operative provisions state that articles 3 to 5 have effect from the beginning of 1 April 2026, while the revised uprating rule in article 6 applies for the 12 months beginning on 1 April 2026 and each successive year. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) For Policy Wire readers, the important point is that the instrument works on two clocks. The legal change is made by Order in Council, but the salary figures are backdated to the start of the 2026-27 financial year, so the measure is designed to reset entitlements from 1 April rather than only from the date of parliamentary approval. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
The clearest headline changes are the specific cash figures written into the Act. The two statutory amounts in section 1(2) for the Lord Chancellor rise to £75,170 and £110,351. The Speaker of the House of Commons moves to £82,750 and the Speaker of the House of Lords to £110,351. Opposition office-holder salaries are also reset, including £68,911 for the Commons Leader of the Opposition and £75,043 for the Lords Leader of the Opposition. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) The Commons Chief Opposition Whip is set at £36,045 and Assistant Opposition Whips at £21,021. In the Lords, the Chief Opposition Whip is set at £69,392. Those figures matter because they are the statutory salary entitlements attached to the offices named in the 1975 Act, not a discretionary administrative adjustment. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
Article 3 also replaces Parts 1 to 4 of Schedule 1, which is where the main ministerial salary bands sit. The new schedule sets the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury at £83,837 and the Chancellor of the Exchequer at £75,170. For a Secretary of State, and for Cabinet-rank offices such as the Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Paymaster General and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the statutory amount is £75,170 if the holder is not a member of the House of Commons and £110,351 if the holder is. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) Below Cabinet level, the revised schedule also sets new rates for non-Cabinet ministers, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the Advocate General for Scotland and a range of whip and Household posts. In practical terms, the Order is not a marginal tidy-up: it rewrites the salary tables across the ministerial structure set out in the Act. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
The more durable policy change sits in article 6. Section 1A is rewritten so that, for each 12-month period beginning on 1 April, salaries payable under section 1 rise by the average percentage increase in the mid-points of the Senior Civil Service pay bands below permanent secretary level, measured against the previous 1 April. That is the new default rule for annual uprating. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) The Cabinet Office explains in its explanatory memorandum that the Order is intended to reset salary levels and put future uplifts onto a formula that excludes the permanent secretary pay band. The department says this reflects longstanding policy and the original recommendation of the Senior Salaries Review Body. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
For 2026-27, the Order adds a transitional safeguard. The relevant percentage for that year is whichever is higher: the new calculation that excludes permanent secretaries, or the old-style calculation that includes them. The effect is to prevent the first year of the new rule from producing a lower entitlement because of the retrospective reset. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) That safeguard matters because the explanatory memorandum says the 1997 formula had been misapplied, with permanent secretary pay appearing often to have been excluded from the calculation despite the legislation not allowing that approach. The government's stated purpose is to align the law with the policy position, make the salary baseline certain again and avoid disadvantaging ministers or other office-holders during the changeover. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
The real-world effect is more technical than a simple pay-rise headline suggests. The Cabinet Office says ministers have routinely waived annual increases and that claimed ministerial pay, with the exception of Lords ministers' pay in 2019, has not risen since 2008. On that account, the Order changes statutory entitlement rather than automatically increasing ministers' current take-home pay. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) For the other office-holders within scope, the position is slightly different. The explanatory memorandum says those office-holders can decide whether to waive their full entitlement and take a reduced amount or draw the statutory salary set by the Act. That makes the instrument immediately relevant for Opposition office-holders and the Speakers as well as for departments and the Consolidated Fund. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)
The Order is therefore best read as a corrective measure inside the constitutional machinery of pay-setting. It does not create new offices and, according to the Cabinet Office, it does not change the number of salaries available under the 1975 Act. What it does is reset the legal salary baseline from 1 April 2026 and replace the annual reference point that will govern future uprating. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk) For a policy audience, the significance lies in certainty and administration rather than spectacle. The legislation gives payroll, finance and parliamentary authorities a new statutory benchmark, and it closes off a formula question that the government says had remained unresolved since the 1990s. For ministers and related office-holders, this is a narrow instrument with a lasting effect on how salaries are calculated in law. (commonsbusiness.parliament.uk)