NHS (Pay) (Hansard, 15 July 1982)

§ Mr. Fowler

I have today issued revised revenue allocations to regional health authorities for 1982–83, which reflect the Government's final pay provision for the NHS announced on 23 June. I have also asked all authorities to revise their staffing plans for the remainder of this financial year in the light of their reduced spending power. The Government have always made it clear that increases in pay must affect the number of jobs. The effect of the final pay offer will be to reduce the number of new jobs in the Health Service this year. I have sought to minimise the effect on existing services by making those authorities with more development money meet a higher proportion of the cost. My Department will discuss the revised manpower estimates with the regions and agree with them new figures for the total number of non-medical staff they expect to employ on 31 March 1983. I would not expect the revised allocations in themselves to result in redundancies.

I have also issued planning assumptions to regions for 1983–84 and 1984–85. These are based on the statement in the expenditure White Paper—Cmnd. 8494—that the Government consider that health authorities should be able to increase efficiency enough to provide further growth in services of about ½ per cent. a year in these years. This has enabled me to continue the Government's policy of reducing the historical differences in health care provision between different parts of the country. However, final figures depend on the outcome of the review of public expenditure in the autumn, and on the decision to be taken then on whether the contribution from the Contingency Reserve to the cost of the final pay provision should be made recurrent.

I have asked health authorities to produce plans covering the next two financial years in the light of these provisional assumptions, and as part of this process to produce in the new year, and then to agree with my Department, targets for the numbers in the main staff groups for March 1984.

I have placed copies of the circular in the library of the House. The attached table sets out the revised allocations for 1982–83 and the provisional assumptions for the following two years.

459W

Amounts in £ millions at cash prices
RHAs	Revised	RAWP	Revenue Assumption	Revenue Assumption	RAWP	Capital Assumptions
	1982–83 Cash Limits (Revenue)	Differential (Per cent.)	(1)^*	(2)^*	Differential (Per cent.)
			1983–84	1984–85	1983–84	1984–85		1983–84	1984–85
1. Northern	523.9	1.89	552.7	580.6	555.2	583.2	0.55	37.8	38.9
2. Yorkshire	585.0	1.50	617.4	648.9	620.2	651.8	0.60	47.4	49.0
3. Trent	701.1	2.29	741.8	781.7	745.2	785.3	0.90	54.0	57.7
4. E Anglia	291.8	2.63	311.1	330.3	312.5	331.8	1.70	19.6	21.0
5. NW Thames	652.3	0.21	655.0	716.0	687.8	719.0	—	36.6	37.5
6. NE Thames	760.1	0.22	798.2	834.4	801.5	837.8	—	40.9	43.1
7. SE Thames	694.4	0.24	729.1	762.0	732.2	765.2	—	38.4	40.5
8. SW Thames	545.7	0.33	573.1	599.3	575.6	601.8	0.05	34.2	35.1
9. Wessex	417.2	2.13	441.5	465.3	443.5	467.4	0.90	45.5	49.1
10. Oxford	334.2	1.64	354.6	374.8	356.3	376.5	1.20	24.1	27.7
11. S Western	509.2	1.76	538.2	566.4	540.6	569.0	0.75	42.2	45.7
12. W Midlands	811.0	1.64	856.3	900.4	560.3	904.5	0.65	69.7	76.4
13. Mersey	433.6	0.85	455.5	476.5	457.6	478.7	0.10	27.2	28.7
14. N Western	724.2	2.14	764.2	803.2	767.8	806.9	0.60	74.2	73.6
Total	7,983.7	1.32	8,418.7	8,839.8	8,456.3	8,878.9	0.50	591.8	624.0
^* Assumption 1 is that the contribution from the Contingency Reserve to the cost of the final pay provision is non-recurrent. Assumption 2 is that the contribution is recurrent.

Note: The revised revenue cash limits for 1982–83 are provisional upon parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary, estimates.