Service Dental and Medical Officers: Pay (Hansard, 3 June 1997)

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Richard)

The Armed Forces Pay Review Body has made recommendations on the pay of medical and dental officers in the Armed Forces. The review body recommends that the daily rate of basic pay should be increased by an average of 3.4 per cent. from 1 April. They have further proposed some significant changes to the pay structures of Service medical and dental officers which will see many forms of additional payments, such as consultant pay, consolidated into basic pay. The Review Body also mentioned that it welcomed the fact that the Ministry of Defence was, in future, proposing to base the pensions of Service medical and dental officers on representative rates of their own salaries rather than that of their combatant counterparts. These changes will serve to give a greater degree of comparability between the pay of defence medical staff and their counterparts in the NHS. The Government have decided to accept the review body's recommendations. Along with earlier recommendations of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body, and the recommendations of the other review bodies, these will be staged, with 2 per cent. of the award being back dated to 1 April, and the remainder being payable from 1 December.