§ Mr. Sean HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy towards maintaining parity of pay levels between doctors and dentists in the armed forces; and what salaries are currently in force.
§ Mr. FreemanPay for both medical and dental officers in the armed forces is set by the Government on the recommendations of the independent Review Body on Armed Forces pay. The review body's approach has been to base its recommendations for both groups on the career earnings of general medical practitioners in the National Health Service. Details of the methodology and of current pay rates are given in the supplement of the review body's sixteenth report 1987 (Cm. 176).
As discussed in paragraphs 4 to 7, the Ministry of Defence is developing some proposals for restructuring the pay of these groups with the aim of improving the retention of experienced people; these will be submitted to the review body for consideration during the 1988 pay review. However, they do not suggest any alteration to the parity of basic pay between service doctors and dentists.