Guiding the Top Salaries Review Body

Abstract

The Top Salaries Review Body had an important place in the last decade of Edward Boyle’s immensely active life. He devoted a great deal of time to its work and brought to it a wealth of experience. He had no illusions about the nature of the task, perceived its importance clearly and was — and remained throughout — convinced of its value. He was committed to the work by nature, by background and by personal conviction, and he inspired confidence among both those covered by the recommendations and the informed public. He was appointed Chairman by the Prime Minister when the Review Body was first set up in 1971. It was an inspired choice, for few people can have been as well qualified, and willing, to take on the controversial and demanding task. Lord Boyle was interested, he was thorough, and he was persuasive. His dry sense of humour was to stand him (and the Review Body) in good stead in the face of some of the stranger decisions of government that were to come.