§ Ms PrimaroloTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many staff are involved in servicing the review bodies on doctors and dentists remuneration and on nursing staff, midwives, health visitors and professions allied to medicine; how many national health service staff are covered by those review bodies; and what is the annual cost of running those bodies.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythIn 1994–95 the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration and the Review Body for Nursing Staff, Midwives, Health Visitors and Professions Allied to Medicine are expected to be serviced directly by up to eight staff, shared equally between the two bodies and assisted as necessary by other clerical and secretarial staff of the Office of Manpower Economics.
As at 30 September 1992, the latest date for which figures are available, there were some 123,000 doctors and dentists and the full-time equivalent of some 512,000 nursing staff, midwives, health visitors and professions allied to medicine in the NHS. This includes staff employed by NHS trusts, which are free to determine the pay of their staff locally.
The annual cost of running the two review bodies, in respect of the salary costs of the eight staff and the travel and subsistence costs for members—who are otherwise unpaid—and staff is expected to be £299,000 in 1994–95.