Council / Report on councillors’ pay increases to go in front of elected members
COUNCILLORS in Shetland are set to get a significant pay uplift in the coming weeks as part of a wider shake-up of how elected members in Scotland are paid.
With new national regulations set to change which ‘band’ Shetland Islands Council lies in – which determines the level of pay for senior posts – the remuneration of the leader position is set to increase by around 40 per cent to just over £50,000.
The convener position in Shetland is also in line for a similar uplift, to £37,548.
The basic salary of councillors across Scotland is set to rise by nearly 22 per cent to £25,982.
Senior councillors – those who hold committee chair positions – will also get a pay uplift, while there is a proposal for the SIC’s depute leader and depute convener to match some of those salaries too.
The increases, set to come into force at the start of April and previously reported on Shetland News, are a knock-on effect of last year’s recommendations from the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee, which have been accepted by the Scottish Government.
A report on the topic will get an airing at a meeting of the full Shetland Islands Council on Wednesday, with elected members able to decide on some elements – but not all.
Low remuneration for councillors has long been regarded as a key reason why many people are reluctant to put their name forward to stand in council elections in Scotland.
In Shetland for instance there had to be a by-election in the North Isles ward in 2022 after only two people put themselves forward for the three seats on offer – while in Shetland North no-one was able to go to the ballot box because only three folk went for that ward’s three seats.
The independent review undertaken by the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee, which was convened at the request of council umbrella body COSLA and last reported to government ministers in 2011, aimed to explore councillors’ pay in the country and barriers to elected office.
Salaries for councillors are set nationally, and there is an uplift every year in line with the median increase in earnings of public sector employees in Scotland.
At the moment councils are categorised into four bands – A to D – with smaller ones like Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and Inverclyde in A, and the largest local authorities Edinburgh and Glasgow in D.
There is a pay scale across the bands for salaries of leaders, civic heads and senior councillors – those in band A have the lowest while those in D have the highest.
The committee, however, recommended that all band A councils in the future should be placed into band B because there is now said to be less difference in the responsibilities of councillors.
In addition there was a recommendation that salaries of leaders and civic heads in the new combined band B should be set at 70 per cent of those in band D.
At the moment the leader of the SIC – Emma Macdonald – is paid £35,580 a year, and the council’s convener Andrea Manson receives £26,686 a year.
The new salaries would represent a pay increase of 40.7 per cent.
The report to councillors added that the level of the leader’s remuneration sets the upper limit against which other maximum amounts can be calculated for other roles.
At Wednesday’s meeting elected members will be asked to note the fixed levels stipulated by the new regulations for the basic remuneration of councillors and the salary of the leader.
They will also be recommended to approve that the maximum sum payable to the convener be at the level stipulated in the regulations – 75 per cent of the leader’s salary.
There is also a recommendation to allow a maximum of ten senior councillor positions – two of which will be depute leader and depute convener, which is a change from before.
Further to this it is recommended that the depute leader and depute convener are paid equivalent to those in the ‘other chairs’ charity – those who lead the audit, planning and licensing committees, and the harbour board.
It will be up to councillors to determine how much senior councillors are paid from 1 April. It is suggested that there will be around £317,000 in total to play with for these roles.
The council has discretion to set the maximum amount for senior councillors at any level between the current figures (between £23,446 and £24,727) and the new maximum of £37,548.
The first recommendations from the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee was that the role of councillor “continues to be fulfilled on a part-time basis, while the role of senior councillors is likely to require to be fulfilled on a full-time basis”.
The report to councillors said there is no specific funding allocation to cover the additional cost of the proposed changes, so nearly £165,000 would be funded from the SIC’s 2025/26 contingency budget.
With the new regulations only recently being passed, provision was made in contingency at the time of budget setting to meet the additional costs.
The report to elected members said the SIC has attempted in the past to encourage greater diversity in the candidates who stand for election.
However, it added: “The council was never able to directly influence the baseline salary or attractiveness of other elected positions and the new regulations should be viewed as providing a necessary improvement and ability to change that perspective now and well ahead of the next election in two years’ time, May 2027.”
More information on the report which will be presented to councillors can be found here.
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