§ 13. Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how performance-related pay will be calculated for NHS employees; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleThese are matters for local determination by national health service employers, having regard to the contributions made by staff to high-quality patient care.
§ Mr. HoyleDoes the Minister realise that performance-related pay is totally inappropriate to the health service and that the practices of the supermarket and the office floor cannot be applied to doctors and nurses, whose jobs are to care for patients and to save lives? Whatever happened to the promise made by the then Minister of State on 23 November 1994 that the Government had no intention of introducing performance-related pay into the health service?
§ Mr. SackvilleThe hon. Gentleman will know that there are plenty of precedents in the health service, such as merit awards for senior medical staff. It is absolutely right that local employers should have the maximum freedom in how they spend the larger part of their resources, which is for salaries. We have given trusts the freedom to make decisions. One of those decisions is on pay.
§ Rev. Martin SmythThe Minister compares merit awards with performance-related pay. The former is based on comparison with peers and we can understand why it is done, but may we have some definitive, objective guidelines on how performance-related pay can operate in the health service? Will it mean that the more patients a trust gets through the door the more people will be paid? Is that performance-related pay?
§ Mr. SackvilleIt is up to each trust to make those decisions. I remind the hon. Gentleman that some 60 trusts have already published offers between 1.5 per cent. and 3 per cent., as recommended by the pay review body. The majority of offers are at the higher level. I expect that trend to continue.