Sections 24 to 26: Salaries, expenses and pensions
87.These sections provide for the Mayor and Assembly members to be paid salaries and expenses and to establish a pension scheme. For the first year of the Authority’s life the Secretary of State - on the basis of recommendations he has invited the Senior Salaries Review Board (SSRB) to provide - will set the level of the Mayor’s and Assembly members’ salaries and make provision for the payment of pensions. The Secretary of State has also invited the SSRB to recommend a mechanism for the review and up-rating of these payments. In subsequent years, when it will be for the Authority to determine the level of such payments, it will be expected to have regard to the advice of the SSRB before making such determinations. The Secretary of State’s guidance on ethical standards, issued under the provisions of section 66 of this Act, will include guidance on this issue to which the Authority must have regard. To ensure transparency, sections 24(8) and 26(5) require the Authority’s standing orders to include provision for the publication of any determination made in relation to salaries or pensions.