HC Deb 03 June 1980 vol 985 cc627-8W
Mr. Skinner

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what instructions he has given to the relevant authorities regarding nurses' pay arising out of the meeting on 29 May at 10 Downing Street.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

No instructions have been given to health authorities following the meeting of 29 May. The management side of the nurses and midwives Whitley Council is aware of the overall cash limit increase for 1980–81 within which the pay settlement for nurses has to be negotiated. That situation has not changed.

Mr. Aspinwall

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make a further statement on the Clegg Commission report relating to nurses' pay.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

There has been no error.

The Standing Commission dealt with the question of working hours for nurses and midwives in paragraph 44 of its Report No. 3 (Cmnd. 7795). It acknowledged that nurses currently worked a 40-hour week, but said it had based its recommended pay scales on a 37½ hour week, as commonly worked by comparators, since it was intended to reduce the nurses' working week to 37½ hours by April 1981, and it would not be necessary to make further adjustments to nurses' pay when the shorter week was introduced. After the Standing Commission's award had been implemented, the Government authorised NHS management to negotiate a solution to the problem of nurses' working hours in the financial year 1980–81. An agreement was reached on 11 March 1980 by the nurses and midwives Whitley Council, on which the National Union of Public Employees is represented, which allowed the working week to be reduced up to a year earlier than expected, with provision for additional payments from 1 April 1980 for any nurses who continued to work 40 hours after that date. Thus, the problem of nurses' hours has been resolved within the normal negotiating machinery, with the assistance of additional finance provided by the Government. Whatever view one may take of the approach to this question adopted by the Standing Commission, it is not the case that there was any error similar to the one which occurred in the commission's report on teachers.