Members of the Legislative Council should get a pay cut.

That’s the conclusion of an investigation by the Positive Action Group.

All members of Tynwald, whether MHKs or MLCs, have the same remuneration structure. Yet members of the upper house do not have any constituency responsibilities.

PAG believes this should be reflected in their pay.

It asked all 24 MHKs what percentage of their working time do they estimate, on average, is spent on constituency matters.

Many had difficulty in calculating the amount of time taken with constituency matters.

There was a wide range of estimates, the lowest being 5% and the highest 50%.

PAG discounted these two figures and then calculated that the estimated average time spent by MHKs on constituency work as 25%

It concluded that MLCs’ workload is estimated at 75% of that of an MHK.

Based on this, PAG is recommending a reduction in the remuneration of MLCs and has submitted its report to the Tynwald emoluments committee for consideration.

It has held back, however, on suggesting what that pay cut should be, pointing out this is just one element to take into account. Another is the number of hours MLCs sit, which in the last parliamentary year was just 18 hours.

PAG chairman Roger Tomlinson said: ’We think there should be a reduction. A number of MLCs work extremely hard, and they’ve got their government responsibilities. But MLCs do not have constituency responsibilities and this should be reflected in some way in their pay.’

PAG has previously argued for a reduction in salary for MLCs to reflect their reduced workload.

It was contained within its SAVE Programme proposal on reducing costs of the legislature.

The suggestions, which were much broader in scope than just MLCs pay and amounted to savings of £370,000 per annum, were rejected by the SAVE team as that programme was about cost reduction within government, not the legislature.

Tynwald members currently receive a basic salary of £41,346.50 a year plus a 30% uplifts for political members. They also received an annual sum for expenses of £7,012.64.

Three did not respond at all to the PAG survey - Home Affairs Minister Bill Malarkey, Chief Minister Howard Quayle and backbencher Chris Robertshaw

Health Minister David Ashford replied: ’It’s an interesting question. When I was a backbencher I would say it was about 50% now as a Minister I would say its about 30%.’

He said this didn’t mean he now spends less time on constituency work only he has to find extra hours to do it.