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No nurse pay rise in April due to ‘intolerable’ government delay

‘I’m still expecting evidence,’ says NHS Pay Review Body chair, and failure to supply it means pay offer for 2023-24 could be postponed for weeks or months

‘I’m still expecting evidence,’ says NHS Pay Review Body chair, and failure to supply it means pay offer for 2023-24 could be postponed for weeks or months

NHS Pay Review Body chair Philippa Hird addressing a Commons health committee

Nurses will miss out on a pay rise in April after the government failed to deliver its evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) for 2023 on time.

RB chair Philippa Hird told a Commons health and social care select committee today that she had written to health and social care secretary Steve Barclay, urging him to send the government’s evidence by 11 January, but that it still had not been received.

Committee chair asks whether Steve Barclay ‘should get his skates on’

‘I wrote to the minister to reiterate the importance of the deadline,’ Ms Hird said. ‘He wrote back straight away to say he understood its importance.

‘I’m still expecting evidence from the government; if it doesn’t come, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’

The committee’s chair, Tory MP Steve Brine, said it was ‘intolerable’ the RB had received no reply and asked whether Mr Barclay ‘should get his skates on’.

The delay means the RB will not be ready to share its recommendations on 2023-24 pay for Agenda for Change staff until the end of April at the earliest, meaning a pay offer could be delayed for weeks or months.

Steve Barclay

Delay makes ‘any pay award due on 1 April’ impossible

The news comes despite Mr Barclay’s remit letter in November to Ms Hird, which stated that he was committed to delivering a pay offer for next year back on a ‘normal timetable’, after the 2022-23 offer was not confirmed until July.

Ms Hird said the RB would normally need a remit letter to be sent in September to be ‘ahead of the curve’.

She added: ‘In the last two years our remit letter has not arrived until the end of November, which sets us back a long way. It means it’s impossible for us to report in time for any award due to be paid on the 1 April, and for any information we give to inform ministers as they’re planning their budget.’

‘The government must stop playing games’

With the current pay offer for 2022-23 still under dispute and more strike action by the RCN planned next week, unions say this new delay will leave staff feeling even more frustrated.

Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton said: ‘Ministers must stop fobbing the public off with promises of a better NHS, while not lifting a finger to solve the staffing emergency staring them in the face.

‘The government must stop playing games. Rishi Sunak wants the public to believe ministers are doing all they can to resolve the dispute. They're not.’

Meanwhile unions have said they will not submit evidence to the RB until this year’s dispute has been resolved.

Barclay gives his reason for delay

Speaking at a later Commons session today, Mr Barclay claimed the delay in submitting evidence was ‘so we can take on board the representation of the trade unions’. Talks with trade unions broke down on 9 January, two days before the deadline for evidence.

The Treasury has submitted evidence, but the Department of Health and Social Care has not. Mr Barclay would not confirm when evidence will be submitted.


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