Doctors and Dentists (Pay) (Hansard, 21 April 1988)

§ The Prime Minister

[pursuant to her reply, 9 February 1988, c. 135]: I am now in a position to make a statement on the latest reports of the pay review bodies. The 1988 reports of the review bodies on the pay of Nursing Staff, Midwives and Health Visitors, and Professions Allied to Medicine, the Doctors and Dentists, and the Armed Forces, and of the Top Salaries Review Body, have been published today. Copies are now available in the Vote Office. The Government are grateful to members of the review bodies for these reports and the time and care which they have put into their preparation.

The following table shows the increases in pay rates recommended by the review bodies, and their cost:

Review Body Reports	Average increase per cent.	Range of increase per cent.	Cost ¹ £million
Nurses, midwives and health visitors	15.3	²4.2 to 33.6	803
Professions allied to medicine	8.8	7.6 to 9.5	45
Doctors and dentists	7.9	³7.3 to 8.1	318
Armed Forces	6.4	2.5 to 7.3	232
Top Salaries

527W

Review Body Reports	Average increase per cent.	Range of increase per cent.	Cost ¹ million
Senior civil servants and senior officers of the armed forces	5.4	5.2 to 5.5
Judiciary	7.4	⁴5.3 to 11.9	5.5

The increases recommended for nursing staff, midwives and health visitors include implementation in the autumn of a radical new grading structure to provide more attractive career prospects and proper recognition of qualifications, skills and responsibilities for staff directly involved in patient care. The review body's recommendations are on the basis that there should be an immediate interim payment of 4 per cent. from 1 April 1988 and that once the new structure has been introduced, consequential pay increases would be backdated to 1 April 1988.

The Government have decided to accept in full the review body's recommendations on nursing staff, midwives and health visitors. They have also decided that the increases recommended by the review bodies on the pay of Professions Allied to Medicine, Doctors and Dentists and the Armed Forces should be paid in full from 1 April 1988. The recommendations of the Top Salaries Review Body will be implemented as to 4 per cent. from 1 April 1988, with the balance from 1 October 1988.

The full cost of the awards for the Armed Forces Pay Review Body and Top Salaries Review Body groups will be met from within existing public expenditure programme totals for this year. In the case of the health service groups the Government have decided that the cost in excess of the allocation already made for this year should be met from the Reserve. They will provide an extra £749 million from the Reserve within the planned total of public expenditure for this year, of which £683 million will be added to health authority cash limits. The remaining £66 million is for the family practitioner services. Together with the increases in allocation already announced, the increase in provision for the National Health Service in 1988–89 over 1987–88 will therefore be £1,852 million.

The pay rates and scales resulting from the decisions will be promulgated as soon as possible for all the groups concerned. Pensions will be based on the salaries actually in payment in accordance with the principle set out in my written answer of 13 April 1984, at column 383.