§ Lord Walton of Detchantasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the remuneration of medicine laboratory scientific officers should be considered by the appropriate National Health Service review body. [HL3501]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathOur proposals for modernising National Health Service pay, which were published in February 1999 inAgenda for Change, include bringing some groups of highly qualified staff within the scope of the Nursing Pay Review Body (NPRB) without changing its fundamentally professional character.
Initial discussions with NHS trade unions on pay modernisation resulted in the Joint Framework of Principles and Agreed Statement on the Way Forward, 65WA which was published on 8 October 1999. This sets out the following starting point for more detailed discussions with trade unions on the qualifying criteria for groups to come within the scope of the NPRB: professions with a minimum entry requirement of three years' educational study (or equivalent) to diploma level or higher in a health specific area (other than medicine or dentistry) and which are state registered and have a substantial majority of members employed in health care; exceptions might be agreed for staff groups which met the majority but not all of these conditions; staff groups which support professions added to the NPRB remit and who have a direct connection with the transferred groups similar to that between nursing auxiliaries and registered nurses would also need to be considered for transfer.
The widening of the membership of the review body is conditional upon an agreement being reached in the current talks about pay modernisation.