Independent review of senior costs
RFTUK calls for transparent scrutiny of senior salaries, allowances, expenses, bonuses and leadership structures across public bodies.
WHAT THIS CAMPAIGN EXAMINES
Public money, public services and accountability
Public services employ millions of people, deliver essential services and manage very large budgets. A high salary or a large departmental budget does not by itself prove waste or poor value. The useful questions are whether spending is transparent, proportionate, properly controlled and linked to measurable outcomes.
Right First Time UK's Public First campaign focuses on the cost of senior leadership, parliamentary pay and allowances, public-service errors, failed projects, contracts, complaints and whether avoidable mistakes create additional cost for the public.
Evidence rule: this page separates published figures from the RFTUK campaign position. Pay figures are not presented as like-for-like job comparisons, and parliamentary office or staffing budgets are not described as personal income.
RFTUK CAMPAIGN POSITION
What Public First is calling for
Protect front-line services
The campaign position is that scrutiny of senior costs should not be used as a reason to reduce essential front-line staffing or services.
Separate pay from operating costs
Salary, staffing budgets, office costs, travel and accommodation should be published as distinct categories so the public can see what each figure actually represents.
Publish measurable outcomes
Departments should make it easier to compare money spent with waiting times, completed work, service outcomes, complaints and corrective action.
Correct errors earlier
The campaign argues that avoidable mistakes should be identified and corrected before they create repeated complaints, appeals, enforcement, compensation or legal costs.
Stronger contract transparency
Major public contracts should show original value, later increases, delivery dates, performance measures, extensions and what happened when targets were missed.
RIGHT FIRST TIME PRINCIPLE
1
2
3
4
Prevent problems instead of paying to defend them
Listen
Understand the evidence and the person affected before making an important decision.
Check
Verify information, calculations, records and legal duties before action is taken.
Explain
Give clear reasons, evidence and routes to challenge or correct a decision.
Correct
When something is wrong, fix it promptly and record what changed so the same failure is less likely to recur.
PUBLISHED PAY EVIDENCE
What current official figures show
These figures use different pay systems and should not be treated as equivalent jobs. They are shown so readers can compare published salary levels while keeping the limitations visible.
MP BASIC SALARY — 2026–27
£98,599
Set independently by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).
UK CIVIL SERVICE MEDIAN — 31 MARCH 2026
£37,820
Median full-time-equivalent salary across the UK Civil Service.
NHS BAND 5 ENTRY — ENGLAND, 1 APRIL 2026
£32,073
Agenda for Change Band 5 entry point; top step is £39,043.
| Role / published measure | Published figure | What it means | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Parliament | £98,599 | Annual basic MP salary for 2026–27. | Separate from eligible parliamentary staffing, office, travel and accommodation budgets. |
| Prime Minister — claimed ministerial salary | £75,440 | September 2026 Cabinet Office figure for the ministerial salary claimed. | A Prime Minister who is an MP also receives the separate MP salary. This table does not include pensions or operational government costs. |
| UK Civil Service — median | £37,820 | Median FTE salary across the Civil Service at 31 March 2026. | The Civil Service includes a wide range of grades and professions. |
| Senior Civil Service — median | £95,540 | Median salary at SCS level in the 2026 Civil Service statistics. | A grade median, not a single standard salary or maximum. |
| Operational Delivery profession — median | £32,140 | Median salary for the Civil Service's largest profession. | Includes different grades and operational roles. |
| NHS Agenda for Change Band 5 | £32,073–£39,043 | England Band 5 entry to top step from 1 April 2026. | Does not include higher-cost-area supplements or every NHS occupation. |
| Police constable — published national scale | £31,164–£50,256 | The Home Office's 2026 evidence cites the national constable scale in force from 1 September 2025. | Local recruitment discretion and allowances can affect actual starting pay and earnings. |
Do not read this table as a ranking of jobs. Responsibilities, hours, pensions, allowances, progression, regional supplements, overtime and employment terms differ. It is a transparency comparison of published pay figures only.
PARLIAMENTARY COSTS
MP salary is only one category of parliamentary spending
IPSA publishes separate budgets because an MP's salary, constituency staff, office costs and eligible accommodation are different things. Combining them and calling the total “MP pay” would be misleading.
650 SEATS × £98,599
≈ £64.1m
Simple annual gross basic-salary calculation if all 650 seats were occupied for a full year.
NON-LONDON STAFFING BUDGET 2026–27
£276,540
Maximum annual staffing budget; this funds staff, not the MP's own salary.
LONDON STAFFING BUDGET 2026–27
£296,080
Maximum annual staffing budget for London-area MPs.
OFFICE COST BUDGET 2026–27
£37,080 / £40,830
Non-London / London-area limits published by IPSA.
Context: MPs' staff carry out constituency casework and parliamentary support. Office and staffing budgets are operating resources and should be assessed separately from personal remuneration.
PUBLIC SPENDING CONTEXT
Large totals need context before they are called waste
HM Treasury's July 2026 Public Spending Statistics provide the first estimate of 2025–26 outturn. They show the scale of government activity, but the existence of a large budget does not demonstrate mismanagement.
TME AS SHARE OF GDP — 2025–26
44.3%
Total Managed Expenditure as a share of the economy.
CENTRAL GOV. CURRENT SERVICES
£871.6bn
Central government's own current expenditure on services in 2025–26.
CENTRAL GOV. DEBT INTEREST
£96.9bn
Expenditure on central government debt interest in 2025–26.
CENTRAL GOV. PAY
£227.0bn
HM Treasury's expenditure-on-services pay measure for 2025–26.
Accounting warning: different spending tables can overlap or use different definitions. Figures from separate accounting presentations should not automatically be added together.
PUBLIC DEBT CONTEXT
Debt is a national balance-sheet measure, not a score for one individual
PUBLIC SECTOR NET DEBT — END JUNE 2026
£2.9899tn
ONS provisional estimate, excluding public sector banks.
DEBT AS SHARE OF GDP — END JUNE 2026
94.9%
ONS provisional estimate; 0.4 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
Why this matters: debt changes reflect borrowing, economic growth, tax receipts, spending decisions, inflation, interest rates and major shocks. A change during a government's term does not by itself establish that one Prime Minister personally caused it.
VALUE FOR MONEY
What stronger evidence of waste or failure looks like
Failed projects
Compare the original budget and deadline with final cost, delivery date and benefits actually achieved.
Official errors
Track incorrect decisions, underpayments, overpayments, corrections, appeals, rework and compensation.
Contract overruns
Show original contract value, later increases, extensions, performance failures and termination or remediation costs.
Repeated complaints
Measure whether the same failure keeps generating complaints, ombudsman findings, appeals or staff rework.
Unused assets
Identify empty buildings, abandoned technology, unused licences, obsolete equipment and cancelled programmes.
Legal and compensation costs
Publish costs caused by unlawful decisions, negligence, data breaches, avoidable delay or poor administration.
Independent evidence matters. National Audit Office reports, departmental accounts, select committees, inspectors, ombudsmen, court judgments and audited data provide stronger evidence of poor value than a large headline number on its own.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY CHECKLIST
Questions every public body should be able to answer
How much was approved and spent?
Publish the original budget, revisions, final expenditure and the reason for material changes.
What was actually delivered?
Show completed cases, people helped, waiting times, service standards and outcomes.
What went wrong?
Publish complaints, audit findings, incidents, missed targets and significant control failures.
What did errors cost?
Include correction work, appeals, compensation, legal costs, duplicate work and recovery action.
Who was accountable?
Identify the senior responsible owner, approving body and contractor where relevant.
Was the problem fixed?
Publish corrective actions, deadlines, follow-up reviews and evidence that performance improved.
OFFICIAL EVIDENCE
Primary sources used on this page
MP pay
UK Parliament information on MPs' salaries and parliamentary funding.
OPEN UK PARLIAMENTIPSA budgets
2026–27 staffing, office, accommodation and related budget limits.
OPEN IPSAMinisterial salaries
Cabinet Office September 2026 transparency data.
OPEN GOV.UKCivil Service Statistics 2026
Accredited official statistics on workforce, grades and earnings.
OPEN STATISTICSNHS pay scales 2026–27
Agenda for Change salary bands in England from 1 April 2026.
OPEN NHS EMPLOYERSPolice pay evidence
Home Office evidence covering current police officer salary scales and pay context.
OPEN HOME OFFICEPublic Spending Statistics
HM Treasury accredited statistics for 2025–26 public spending outturn.
OPEN HM TREASURYPublic sector finances
ONS borrowing, debt and wider public-finance measures.
OPEN ONSContracts Finder
Search public procurement opportunities and awarded contracts.
OPEN CONTRACTS FINDERNational Audit Office
Independent audits and value-for-money reports on public spending and services.
OPEN NAOParliamentary committees
Committee inquiries, evidence, reports and government responses.
OPEN COMMITTEESParliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman
Published reports and findings about complaints involving government departments and the NHS in England.
OPEN PHSO
Information checked 30 September 2026. Salary scales, allowances, statistical estimates and government budgets can change or be revised. Follow the official source links for the latest version before reusing a figure.
Public First — evidence before conclusions
Right First Time UK presents the campaign position separately from official evidence so readers can see what is being argued, what the published figures actually say and where the limits of a comparison are.